United States v. Morales’s Empirical Analysis
577 F.2d 769 · 1978
Citation profile
57 federal appellate · 6 district · 4 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 85 later decisions — most recently February 2020 · most notably United States v. Aulet (1980), United States v. Nusraty (1989)
57 federal appellate · 6 district · 4 state decisions
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.
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 2 · 21 U.S.C. § 841 (§ 401 of the Controlled Substances Act)
Relies on Allen v. United States · Leary v. United States · Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Corp. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Turner v. United States · Romano v. United States
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 85 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In determining what the defendant knew or reasonably should have known, you may consider whether the defendant deliberately closed his eyes to what otherwise would have been obvious. This does not mean that the defendant acted carelessly, negligently or even foolishly. One may not, however, avoid criminal liability by wilfully and intentionally remaining ignorant of a fact material and important to his or her conduct. Thus, even if you find beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was aware that there was a high probability that the doctors and pharmacists were acting outside the usual course of professional practice and not for a legitimate medical purpose, but deliberately and consciously avoided learning this fact, then you may treat this deliberate avoidance of knowledge as the equivalent of knowledge.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“(a) Except as authorized by this subchapter, it shall be unlawful for any person knowingly or intentionally— . (1) to manufacture, distribute, or dispense, ... a controlled substance;____”
1 later decision 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.