Breest v. Helgemoe’s Empirical Analysis
579 F.2d 95 · 1978
Citation profile
48 federal appellate · 10 district · 35 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 111 later decisions — most recently February 2022 · most notably United States v. Villano (1987), State v. Lane (1998)
48 federal appellate · 10 district · 35 state decisions — followed in 19 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.
Relationships
Applies 21 U.S.C. § 841 (§ 401 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on North Carolina v. Pearce · Stone v. Powell · Dobbert v. Florida · Bullock v. United States · Calder et Wife, v. Bull et Wife.
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 111 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a real and psychologically critical importance”
19 later decisions quote this exact passage“From the earliest judicial construction to the present ... it has also been clear that application of a law, enacted after the crime, which changes the punishment, is not in and of itself unconstitutional. Only those which inflict greater or additional punishment are banned.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Lerner v. Gill“parole eligibility constitutes part of punishment”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Akins v. Snow
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.