United States v. Simpson’s Empirical Analysis
813 F.2d 1462 · 1987
Citation profile
112 federal appellate · 16 district · 16 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 190 later decisions — most recently July 2025 · most notably Sanchez v. United States (1995), United States v. Smith (1991)
112 federal appellate · 16 district · 16 state decisions — followed in 10 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 18 U.S.C. § 2518 (Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986) · 18 U.S.C. § 3731 · 28 U.S.C. § 1291
Relies on Rochin v. People of California · Moran v. Burbine · United States v. Russell · Rideout v. United States · Mahan & Rowsey, Inc. v. Oklahoma Natural Gas
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 190 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“so grossly shocking and so outrageous as to violate the universal sense of justice.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“It is unrealistic to expect law enforcement officers to ferret out criminals without the help of unsavory characters.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Due process is not violated unless the conduct is attributable to and directed by the government. Passive tolerance ... of a private informant's questionable conduct [is] less egregious than the conscious direction of government's agents ...”
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.