Costello v. United States

Decided February 20, 1961. William Joseph Brennan Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 59 · 365 U.S. 265 (1961) · Cited 927 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 6–2.

“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.

• Schneiderman v. United States · 320 U.S. 118 (1943)
• Nardone v. United States · 308 U.S. 338 (1939)
• Silverthorne Lumber Co. v. United States · 251 U.S. 385 (1920)
• United States v. Procter & Gamble Co. · 356 U.S. 677 (1958)
• United States v. Summerlin · 310 U.S. 414 (1940)
• Board of Comm'rs of Jackson Cty. v. United States · 308 U.S. 343 (1939)
• United States v. Kirkpatrick · 22 U.S. 720 (1824)
• In Re Sawyer · 124 U.S. 200 (1888)
• Baumgartner v. United States · 322 U.S. 665 (1944)
• Southern Pacific Co. v. Bogert · 250 U.S. 483 (1919)
• Galliher v. Cadwell · 145 U.S. 368 (1892)
• Gardner v. Panama Railroad · 342 U.S. 29 (1951)
• Noble v. Union River Logging Railroad · 147 U.S. 165 (1893)
• Johannessen v. United States · 225 U.S. 227 (1912)
• Chaunt v. United States · 364 U.S. 350 (1960)
• United States v. Thompson · 98 U.S. 486 (1879)
• Hughes v. United States · 71 U.S. 232 (1866)
• Benanti v. United States · 355 U.S. 96 (1957)
• Brown v. County of Buena Vista · 95 U.S. 157 (1877)
• Des Moines Navigation & Railroad v. Iowa Homestead Co. · 123 U.S. 552 (1887)

Cited by

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

• Fedorenko v. United States · 449 U.S. 490 (1981)
• Kungys v. United States · 485 U.S. 759 (1988)
• Maslenjak v. United States · 582 U.S. 335 (2017)
• Costello v. Immigration & Naturalization Service · 376 U.S. 120 (1964)
• Kansas v. Colorado · 514 U.S. 673 (1995)
• National Railroad Passenger Corporation v. Morgan · 536 U.S. 101 (2002)
• Segura v. United States · 468 U.S. 796 (1984)
• Murray v. United States · 487 U.S. 533 (1988)
• Poe v. Ullman · 367 U.S. 497 (1961)
• Lanza v. New York · 370 U.S. 139 (1962)

Official text

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

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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).