Burns v. Wilson’s Empirical Analysis
1953
Citation profile
705 federal appellate · 186 district · 32 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,613 later decisions (75 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2021 · most notably Northern Pipeline Construction Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co. (1982), Parker v. Levy (1974)
705 federal appellate · 186 district · 32 state decisions — followed in 10 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
reviewedBurns v. Lovett, Secretary of Defense Dennis v. Lovett, Secretary of Defense (from District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Johnson v. Zerbst · McNabb v. United States · Von Moltke v. Gillies · Wade v. Hunter · Lisenba v. People of State of California
Cited together with Gusik v. Schilder · Orloff v. Willoughby · Schlesinger v. Councilman · United States Ex Rel. Toth v. Quarles · Parker v. Levy
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 1,613 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the rights of men in the armed forces must perforce be conditioned to meet certain overriding demands of discipline and duty, and the civil courts are not the agencies which must determine the precise balance to be struck in this adjustment.”
39 later decisions quote this exact passage“The military courts, like the state courts, have the same responsibilities as do the federal courts to protect a person from a violation of his constitutional rights. In military habeas corpus cases, even more than in state habeas corpus cases, it would be in disregard of the statutory scheme if the federal civil courts failed to take account of the prior proceedings — of the fair determinations of the military tribunals after all military remedies have been exhausted.”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage“whether the military have given fair consideration”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.