This expression became "one of the most famous phrases in the entire history" of the Supreme Court.

Stewart's "I know it when I see it" standard was praised as an example of "candor" and "realistic and gallant", though it has been criticized for its lack of concreteness.

In 1994, Max van der Stoel, the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), stated in his address at the opening of the OSCE Minorities Seminar in Warsaw: "I won't offer you [a definition] of my own. (...) I would dare to say that I know a minority when I see one. First of all, a minority is a group with linguistic, ethnic or cultural characteristics, which distinguish it from the majority. Secondly, a minority is a group which usually not only seeks to maintain its identity but also tries to give stronger expression to that identity".