United States v. Kirby’s Empirical Analysis
74 U.S. 482 · 1868
Citation profile
208 federal appellate · 73 district · 156 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 626 later decisions (61 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2024 · most notably Sorrells v. United States (1932), Rector Etc of Holy Trinity Church v. United States (1892)
208 federal appellate · 73 district · 156 state decisions — followed in 38 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 626 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““All laws should receive a sensible construction. General terms should be so limited in their application as not to lead to injustice, oppression, or an absurd consequence. It will always, therefore, be presumed that the legislature intended exceptions to its language, which would avoid results of this character. The reason of the law in such cases should prevail over its letter.””
72 later decisions quote this exact passage“knowingly and willfully obstruct or retard the passage of the mail.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage““All persons in the public service are exempt, as a matter of public policy, from arrest upon civil process while thus engaged.” (p. 486.)”
1 later decision 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.