United States v. Harper’s Empirical Analysis
802 F.2d 115 · 1986
Citation profile
47 federal appellate · 1 district · 10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 77 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Dixon v. United States (2006), United States v. Posada-Rios (1998)
47 federal appellate · 1 district · 10 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. § 922 (Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act) · 26 U.S.C. § 5845 (§ 201 of the Gun Control Act of 1968)
Relies on United States v. Leon · Ball v. United States · United States v. Gant · United States v. Panter · United States v. Veytia-Bravo
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 77 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“no reasonable, legal alternative to violating the law”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“must show that he actually tried the alternative or had no time to try it, or that a history of futile attempts revealed the illusionary benefits of the alternatives.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“to avoid possessing the firearm. As the court in Lemon explained, to establish that he had no alternative to possessing a firearm, a defendant must show”
2 later decisions 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.