Rogers v. Ritter’s Empirical Analysis
79 U.S. 317 · 1870
Citation profile
10 federal appellate · 17 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 42 later decisions (8 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2010 · most notably United States v. American Bell Telephone Co. (1897), Hickory v. United States (1894)
10 federal appellate · 17 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.
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 42 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““It is settled everywhere that, if a person has seen another write his name but once he can testify, and that he is equally competent, if he has personally communicated with him by letter, although he has never seen him write . at all. But is the witness incompetent unless he has obtained his knowledge in one or the other of these modes? Clearly not, for in the varied affairs of life there are many modes in which one person can become acquainted with the handwriting of another, besides having seen him write or corresponded with him. There is no good reason for excluding any of these modes of getting information, and if the court, on the preliminary -examination of the witness, can see that he has that degree of knowledge of the party’s handwriting which will enable him to judge of its genuineness, he should be permitted to give to the jury his opinion on the subject.””
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.