Jones v. Cunningham’s Empirical Analysis
1963
Citation profile
1,189 federal appellate · 292 district · 312 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,893 later decisions (58 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Murray v. Carrier (1986), Preiser v. Rodriguez (1973)
1,189 federal appellate · 292 district · 312 state decisions — followed in 37 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
reviewedJohn R. Jones v. W. K. Cunningham, Jr., Superintendent of Virginia State Penitentiary (from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2241 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996)
Relies on Shaughnessy v. United States Ex Rel. Mezei · McNally v. Hill · United States Knauff v. Shaughnessy · Ahrens v. Clark
Cited together with Hensley v. Municipal Court, San Jose-Milpitas Judicial Dist., Santa Clara Cty. · Peyton v. Rowe · Fay v. Noia · Maleng v. Cook · Carafas v. J
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 2,893 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“significantly restrain petitioner's liberty to do those things which in this country free men are entitled to do.”
69 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“does not attempt to mark the boundaries of 'custody' nor in any way other than by use of that word attempt to limit the situations in which the writ can be used.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“custody in violation of the Constitution.”
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.