Boyle v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
2009
Citation profile
168 federal appellate · 90 district · 123 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 825 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably In re Insurance Brokerage Antitrust Litigation (2010), RJR Nabisco, Inc. v. European Community (2016)
168 federal appellate · 90 district · 123 state decisions — followed in 11 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 Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 1955 · 18 U.S.C. § 1961 (§ 901 of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) · 18 U.S.C. § 1962 (§ 901 of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 848 (§ 408 of the Controlled Substances Act)
Relies on Sedima Sprl v. Imrex Company Inc · United States v. Turkette · Hj Inc v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Company · Russello v. United States · Reves v. Ernst & Young
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 825 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a purpose, relationships among those associated with the enterprise, and longevity sufficient to permit these associates to pursue the enterprise's purpose.”
35 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“need not have a hierarchical structure or a "chain of command"; decisions may be made on an ad hoc basis and by any number of methods-by majority vote, consensus, a show of strength, etc. Members of the group need not have fixed roles; different members may perform different roles at different times. The group need not have a name, regular meetings, dues, [or] established rules and regulations ....While the group must function as a continuing unit and remain in existence long enough to pursue a course of conduct, nothing in RICO exempts an enterprise whose associates engage in spurts of activity punctuated by periods of quiescence.”
30 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“group of persons associated together for a common purpose of engaging in a course of conduct.”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.