Adams v. United States Ex Rel. McCann’s Empirical Analysis
317 U.S. 269 · 1943
Citation profile
1,436 federal appellate · 106 district · 1,797 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,193 later decisions (151 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Strickland v. Washington (1984), Schneckloth v. Bustamonte (1973)
1,436 federal appellate · 106 district · 1,797 state decisions — followed in 49 states
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.
Appellate journey
reviewedUnited States ex rel. McCann v. Adams (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Glasser v. United States · Johnson v. Zerbst · Powell v. State of Alabama Patterson · Tumey v. State of Ohio
Cited together with Johnson v. Zerbst · Faretta v. California · Von Moltke v. Gillies · Gideon v. Wainwright · Patton v. United States
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 4,193 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“he knows what he is doing and his choice is made with eyes open.”
187 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“not as a matter of speculation but as a demonstrable reality.”
36 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[W]hether or not there is an intelligent, competent, self-protecting waiver of jury trial by an accused must depend upon the unique circumstances of each case.”
19 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.