United States v. Phelps’s Empirical Analysis
877 F.2d 28 · 1989
Citation profile
42 federal appellate ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 54 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2010 · most notably Smith v. United States (1993), United States v. Torres-Rodriguez (1991)
42 federal appellate ·
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. § 924
Relies on Scharffe v. Perkins · Simpson v. United States · Domby v. United States · Harris v. Oklahoma · United States v. Stewart
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 54 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[w]hoever, during and in relation to any crime of violence or drug trafficking crime ... uses or carries a firearm, shall, in addition to the punishment provided for such crime ... be sentenced to imprisonment for five years....”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the mere presence of a firearm does not trigger the statute,”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a firearm is used 'in relation to' an offense if the firearm facilitated or had a role in the crime, such as emboldening an actor who had the opportunity or ability to display or discharge the weapon to protect himself or intimidate others whether or not such display or discharge in fact occurred,”
3 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.