Sanders v. Ratelle’s Empirical Analysis
21 F.3d 1446 · 1994
Citation profile
203 federal appellate · 3 district · 20 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 336 later decisions — most recently December 2025 · most notably Bonin v. Calderon (1995), Duckett v. Godinez (1995)
203 federal appellate · 3 district · 20 state decisions
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 28 U.S.C. § 2254 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Strickland v. Washington · Cuyler v. Sullivan · Chambers v. Mississippi · Carnegie v. United States · Holloway v. Arkansas
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 336 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The existence of an actual conflict cannot be governed solely by the perceptions of the attorney; rather, the court itself must examine the record to discern whether the attorney's behavior seems to have been influenced by the suggested conflict.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[C]ounsel must, at a minimum, conduct a reasonable investigation enabling him to make informed decisions about how best to represent his client.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Young v. Riveland · In Re Fleming“must indulge a strong presumption that counsel's conduct falls within the wide range of professional assistance; that is, the defendant must overcome the presumption that, under the circumstances, the challenged action might be considered sound trial strategy.”
5 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.