Watts v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1969
Citation profile
672 federal appellate · 93 district · 551 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,711 later decisions (36 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Hunter v. Bryant (1991), Rankin v. McPherson (1987)
672 federal appellate · 93 district · 551 state decisions — followed in 43 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
reviewedWatts v. United States (from District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Linn v. United Plant Guard Workers of America, Local 114 · Watts v. United States · United States v. Stickrath
Cited together with Virginia v. Black · Rav v. City of St Paul Minnesota · Chaplinsky v. State of New Hampshire · New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Brandenburg v. Ohio
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 1,711 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“What is a threat must be distinguished from what is constitutionally protected speech.”
75 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“They always holler at us to get an education. And now I have already received my draft classification as 1-A and I have got to report for my physical this Monday coming. I am not going. If they ever make me carry a rifle the first man I want to get in my sights is L.B.J. They are not going to make me kill my black brothers.”
49 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Whoever knowingly and willfully deposits for conveyance in the mail or for a delivery from any post office or by any letter carrier any letter, paper, writing, print, missive, or document containing any threat to take the life of or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States, the President-elect, the Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President of the United States, or the Vice President-elect, or knowingly and willfully otherwise makes any such threat against the President, President-elect, Vice President or other officer next in the order of succession to the office of President, or Vice President-elect, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than five years, or both.””
8 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.