Drope v. Missouri’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
1,063 federal appellate · 92 district · 2,405 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,696 later decisions (51 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Jackson v. Virginia (1979), Estelle v. Williams (1976)
1,063 federal appellate · 92 district · 2,405 state decisions — followed in 49 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 Dusky v. United States · Pate v. Robinson · Culombe v. Connecticut · Jackson v. Indiana
Cited together with Pate v. Robinson · Dusky v. United States · Strickland v. Washington · Medina v. California · Godinez v. Moran
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 4,696 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It has long been accepted that a person whose mental condition is such that he lacks the capacity to understand the nature and object of the proceedings against him, to consult with counsel, and to assist in preparing his defense may not be subjected to a trial.”
277 later decisions quote this exact passage“[g]iven the inherent difficulties of . . . a nunc pro tunc determination under the most favorable circumstances, [citations], we cannot conclude that such a procedure would be adequate here.”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“* * * the 'test must be whether he has sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding—and whether he has a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him.'”
16 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.