United States v. Reynolds’s Empirical Analysis
1953
Citation profile
756 federal appellate · 298 district · 177 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,142 later decisions (59 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2023 · most notably United States v. Nixon (1974), Kerr v. United States Dist. Court for Northern Dist. of Cal. (1976)
756 federal appellate · 298 district · 177 state decisions — followed in 27 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
reviewedthe decision below (from Third Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Hoffman v. United States · United States v. Yellow Cab Co. · Rescue Army v. Municipal Court of Los Angeles · United States Touhy v. Ragen
Cited together with United States v. Nixon · Roviaro v. United States · Totten Administrator v. United States · Hickman v. Taylor · Environmental Protection Agency v. Mink
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 2,142 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Judicial control over the evidence in a case cannot be abdicated to the caprice of executive officers.”
84 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“even the most compelling necessity cannot overcome the claim of privilege if the court is ultimately satisfied that military secrets are at stake.”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“have seen and considered the contents of the documents and himself have formed the view that on grounds of public interest they ought not to be produced”
10 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.