United States v. Abel

Decided December 10, 1984. William Hubbs Rehnquist delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 83-935 · 469 U.S. 45 (1984) · Cited 1,044 times

Holding

The evidence showing Mills' and respondent's membership in the prison gang was sufficiently probative of Mills' possible bias towards respondent to warrant its admission into evidence.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“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.

• Scales v. United States · 367 U.S. 203 (1961)
• Brandenburg v. Ohio · 395 U.S. 444 (1969)
• Alford v. United States · 282 U.S. 687 (1931)
• Davis v. Alaska · 415 U.S. 308 (1974)
• Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Labor Union, Inc. · 433 U.S. 119 (1977)
• Palmer v. Hoffman · 318 U.S. 109 (1943)
• Shepard v. United States · 290 U.S. 96 (1933)
• Funk v. United States · 290 U.S. 371 (1933)
• District of Columbia v. Clawans · 300 U.S. 617 (1937)

Cited by

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

• Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc. · 509 U.S. 579 (1993)
• Tome v. United States · 513 U.S. 150 (1995)
• United States v. Tsarnaev · 595 U.S. 302 (2022)
• General Electric Co. v. Joiner · 522 U.S. 136 (1997)
• Williamson v. United States · 512 U.S. 594 (1994)
• Sprint/United Management Co. v. Mendelsohn · 552 U.S. 379 (2008)
• Dawson v. Delaware · 503 U.S. 159 (1992)
• Smith v. Arizona · 602 U.S. 779 (2024)
• Old Chief v. United States · 519 U.S. 172 (1997)
• Pennsylvania v. Ritchie · 480 U.S. 39 (1987)

Official text

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

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1984). 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).