Witmer v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1955
Citation profile
1,077 federal appellate · 167 district · 11 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,667 later decisions (21 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2009 · most notably Oestereich v. Selective Service System Local Board No. 11 (1969), McGee v. United States (1971)
1,077 federal appellate · 167 district · 11 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedUnited States v. Witmer (from Third Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Estep v. United States · Dickinson v. United States · Simmons v. United States · Secretary of Agriculture v. United States
Cited together with Estep v. United States · Dickinson v. United States · United States v. Seeger · Welsh II v. United States · Sicurella 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 1,667 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“some inference of insincerity or bad faith.”
52 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(j) Nothing contained in this title shall be construed to require any person to be subject to combatant training and service in the armed forces of the United States who, by reason of religious training and belief, is conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form. As used in this subsection, the term `religious training and belief' does not include essentially political, sociological, or philosophical views, or a merely personal moral code. * * *”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““[Ijnconsistent statements in themselves cast considerable doubt on the sincerity of petitioner’s claim . it goes to his sincerity and honesty in claiming conscientious objection to participation in war.””
6 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.