Charles Thomas Sell v. United States

Decided June 16, 2003. Stephen Gerald Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 02-5664 · 539 U.S. 166 (2003) · Cited 1,055 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 6–3.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Washington v. Harper · 494 U.S. 210 (1990)
• Riggins v. Nevada · 504 U.S. 127 (1992)
• Coopers & Lybrand v. Livesay · 437 U.S. 463 (1978)
• Flanagan v. United States · 465 U.S. 259 (1984)
• Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp. · 337 U.S. 541 (1949)
• Abney v. United States · 431 U.S. 651 (1977)
• Stack v. Boyle · 342 U.S. 1 (1951)
• Helstoski v. Meanor · 442 U.S. 500 (1979)
• Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics · 403 U.S. 388 (1971)
• Carroll v. United States · 354 U.S. 394 (1957)
• Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment · 523 U.S. 83 (1998)
• Illinois v. Allen · 397 U.S. 337 (1970)
• Cruzan Ex Rel. Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health · 497 U.S. 261 (1990)
• Midland Asphalt Corp. v. United States · 489 U.S. 794 (1989)
• Winston v. Lee · 470 U.S. 753 (1985)
• United States v. Hollywood Motor Car Co. · 458 U.S. 263 (1982)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Ziglar v. Abbasi · 582 U.S. 120 (2017)
• Indiana v. Edwards · 554 U.S. 164 (2008)
• Mohawk Industries, Inc. v. Carpenter · 558 U.S. 100 (2009)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Stephen Gerald Breyer’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).