Roviaro v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1957
Citation profile
2,905 federal appellate · 463 district · 3,310 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 8,084 later decisions (78 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2026 · most notably Morrissey v. Brewer (1972), Wolff v. McDonnell (1974)
2,905 federal appellate · 463 district · 3,310 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 v. Roviaro (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Pinkerton v. United States · Hirabayashi v. United States · Abrams v. United States · Scher v. United States
Cited together with McCray v. State of Illinois · Brady v. State of Maryland · Jones v. United States · Aguilar v. Texas · Spinelli 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 8,084 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“We believe that no fixed rule with respect to disclosure is justifiable. The problem is one that calls for balancing the public interest in protecting the flow of information against the individual’s right to prepare his defense. Whether a proper balance renders nondisclosure erroneous must depend on the particular circumstances of each case, taking into consideration the crime charged, the possible defenses, the possible significance of the informer’s testimony, and other relevant factors.”
562 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“had taken a material part in bringing about the possession of certain drugs by the accused, had been present with the accused at the occurrence of the alleged crime, and might be a material witness as to whether the accused knowingly transported the drugs as charged.”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“defend the nondisclosure of Doe's identity with respect to Count 1, which charged a sale of heroin to John Doe,”
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.