McCarthy v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1969
Citation profile
2,963 federal appellate · 197 district · 2,122 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 6,760 later decisions (85 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Schneckloth v. Bustamonte (1973), Boykin v. Alabama (1969)
2,963 federal appellate · 197 district · 2,122 state decisions — followed in 48 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. McCarthy (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Johnson v. Zerbst · Von Moltke v. Gillies · MacHibroda v. United States · Sansone v. United States
Cited together with Halliday v. United States · Boykin v. Alabama · Brady v. United States · North Carolina v. Alford · Johnson v. Zerbst
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 6,760 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“because a guilty plea is an admission of all the elements of a formal criminal charge, it cannot be truly voluntary unless the defendant possesses an understanding of the law in relation to the facts.”
330 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“A defendant may plead not guilty, guilty or, with the consent of the court, nolo contendere. The court may refuse to accept a plea of guilty, and shall not accept such plea or a plea of nolo contendere without first addressing the defendant personally and determining that the plea is made voluntarily with understanding of the nature of the charge and the consequences of the plea. If a defendant refuses to plead or if the court refuses to accept a plea of guilty or if a defendant corporation fails to appear, the court shall enter a plea of not guilty. The court shall not enter a judgment upon a plea of guilty unless it is satisfied that there is a factual basis for the plea.”
78 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“[m]atters of reality, and not mere ritual, should be controlling.”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.