Ashcroft Attorney General v. Free Speech Coalition’s Empirical Analysis
2002
Citation profile
506 federal appellate · 120 district · 507 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,700 later decisions (25 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2025 · most notably United States v. Williams (2008), Federal Communications Commission v. Fox Television Stations, Inc. (2009)
506 federal appellate · 120 district · 507 state decisions — followed in 37 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Appellate journey
reviewedthe decision below (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 2241 (Amber Hagerman Child Protection Act of 1996) · 18 U.S.C. § 2251 (Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996) · 18 U.S.C. § 2252 · 18 U.S.C. § 2252A (§ 101 of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996) · 18 U.S.C. § 2256
Relies on Broadrick v. Oklahoma · Grayned v. City of Rockford · Miller v. California · New York v. Ferber · Crowell v. Benson
Cited together with New York v. Ferber · Miller v. California · Broadrick v. Oklahoma · Osborne v. Ohio · Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 1,700 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“from dictating what we see or read or speak or hear.”
87 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct,”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage“(8) “child pornography” means any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, or computer or computer-generated image or picture, whether made or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means, of sexually explicit conduct, where— (B) such visual depiction is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.