Thompson v. Bowie’s Empirical Analysis
71 U.S. 463 · 1866
Citation profile
25 federal appellate · 3 district · 23 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 62 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2025 · most notably Allen v. Illinois (1986), First Nat Bank of Xenia Ohio v. Stewart (1885)
25 federal appellate · 3 district · 23 state decisions — followed in 13 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.
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 62 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It is very rare that in civil suits the character of the party is admissible in evidence, and it is never permitted, unless the nature of the action involves or directly affects the general character of the party.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““There is no difference * * * as to the rules of evidence between criminal and civil cases; what jmay be received in the one may be received in the other, and what is rejected in the one ought to be rejected in the other.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“When trying a prisoner on an indictment, for a particular crime, proof that he has a general disposition to commit the crime is never permitted”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Allen v. Illinois
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.