Aptheker v. Secretary of State’s Empirical Analysis
1964
Citation profile
389 federal appellate · 166 district · 342 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,383 later decisions (159 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Buckley v. Valeo (1976), Roe v. Wade (1973)
389 federal appellate · 166 district · 342 state decisions — followed in 33 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
reviewedthe decision below (from District of Columbia District Court)
Relationships
Relies on Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. Y Button · Bolling v. Sharpe · William Marbury v. James Madison
Cited together with Kent v. Dulles · National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. Y Button · Shelton v. Tucker · Shapiro v. Thompson · United States v. Robel
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 1,383 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“' "must not and will not carry this to the point of perverting the purpose of a statute ...”
19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[F]reedom of movement is the very essence of our free society, setting us apart. Like the right of assembly and the right of association, it often makes all other rights meaningfulknowing, studying, arguing, exploring, conversing, observing and even thinking.”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“course would not be proper, or desirable, in dealing with a section which so severely curtails personal liberty.”
8 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.