Williams v. Oklahoma City’s Empirical Analysis
1969
Citation profile
86 federal appellate · 15 district · 115 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 291 later decisions (23 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2024 · most notably San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973), Bounds v. Smith (1977)
86 federal appellate · 15 district · 115 state decisions — followed in 22 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.
Relationships
Relies on Griffin v. People of the State of Illinois · Douglas v. People of State of California · Rinaldi v. Yeager · Draper v. Washington · Lane v. Brown
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 291 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'must be kept free of unreasoned distinctions that can only impede open and equal access to the courts.'”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"This Court has never held that the States are required to establish avenues of appellate review, but it is now fundamental that, once established, these avenues must be kept free of unreasoned distinctions that can only impede open and equal access to the courts. Griffin v. Illinois, 351 U.S. 12 , 76 S.Ct. 585 , 100 L.Ed. 891 ; Douglas v. California, 372 U.S. 353 , 83 S.Ct. 814 , 9 L.Ed.2d 811 ; Lane v. Brown, 372 U.S. 477 , 83 S.Ct. 768 , 9 L.Ed.2d 892 ; Draper v. Washington, 372 U.S. 487 , 83 S.Ct. 774 , 9 L.Ed.2d 899 ." Rinaldi v. Yeager, 384 U.S. 305, 310-311 , 86 S.Ct. 1497 , 16 L.Ed.2d 577 (1966). Although the Oklahoma statutes expressly provide that "[a]n appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals may be taken by the defendant, as a matter of right from any judgment against him ...," the decision of the Court of Criminal Appeals wholly denies any right of appeal to this impoverished petitioner, but grants that right only to appellants from like convictions able to pay for the preparation of a "case-made." This is an "unreasoned distinction" which the Fourteenth Amendment forbids the State to make. See Griffin v. Illinois [and] Draper v. Washington [supra]; Eskridge v. Washington State Board, 357 U.S. 214 , 78 S.Ct. 1061 , 2 L.Ed.2d 1269 (1958). (Emphasis in original)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Shuman v. State“that an indigent person, convicted for a violation of a city ordinance, quasi criminal in nature and often referred to as a petty offense, is (not) entitled to a case-made or transcript at city expense in order to perfect an appeal. * * *”
1 later decision 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.