Leng May Ma v. Barber’s Empirical Analysis
1958
Citation profile
280 federal appellate · 48 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 681 later decisions (26 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Plyler v. Doe (1982), Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Stevic (1984)
280 federal appellate · 48 district · 1 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
reviewedLeng May Ma v. Barber (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 8 U.S.C. § 1182 (§ 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1221 (§ 231 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1226 (§ 236 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1251 (§ 241 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1253 (§ 243 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter))
Relies on Shaughnessy v. United States Ex Rel. Mezei · Kwong Hai Chew v. Colding · Nishimura Ekiu v. United States · United States v. Ju Toy
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 681 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“our immigration laws have long made a distinction between those aliens who have come to our shores seeking admission ... and those who are within the United States after an entry, irrespective of its legality.”
30 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he parole of aliens seeking admission is simply a device through which needless confinement is avoided while administrative proceedings are conducted. It was never intended to affect an alien's status....”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Ahrens v. Rojas · Alanniz v. Barr“such parole of such alien shall not be regarded as an admission of the alien.”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.