United States v. Bernal’s Empirical Analysis
814 F.2d 175 · 1987
Citation profile
23 federal appellate · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 32 later decisions — most recently March 2024 · most notably United States v. Laing (1989), United States v. Pineda-Ortuno (1992)
23 federal appellate · 3 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. § 1341 (White-Collar Crime Penalty Enhancement Act of 2002) · 18 U.S.C. § 201 (Bank Bribery Amendments) · 18 U.S.C. § 371 · 42 U.S.C. § 1760
Relies on Kotteakos v. United States · Northern Pipeline Construction Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co. · Ohio State Board of Education v. Reed · Cincinnati Milacron Chemicals, Inc. v. Blankenship · Griffin v. United States
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 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“If, when all is said and done, the conviction is sure that the error did not influence the jury, or had but very slight effect, the verdict and the judgment should stand.... But if one cannot say, with fair assurance, after pondering all that happened without stripping the erroneous action from the whole, that the judgment was not substantially swayed by the error, it is impossible to conclude that substantial rights were not affected. The inquiry cannot be merely whether there was enough to support the result, apart from the phase affected by the error. It is rather, even so, whether the error itself had substantial influence. If so, or if one is left in grave doubt, the conviction cannot stand.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“misled the district court or opposing counsel”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“point[ ] to some sound reason for refusing”
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.