United States v. Watson’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
1,330 federal appellate · 281 district · 1,704 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,266 later decisions (79 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2025 · most notably Payton v. New York (1980), Florida v. Royer (1983)
1,330 federal appellate · 281 district · 1,704 state decisions — followed in 46 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. Watson (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Terry v. Ohio · Wong Sun v. United States · Katz v. United States · Schneckloth v. Bustamonte
Cited together with Schneckloth v. Bustamonte · Terry v. Ohio · Payton v. New York · Wong Sun v. United States · United States v. Santana
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 4,266 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[T]he fact of custody alone has never been enough in itself to demonstrate a coerced confession or consent to search.”
42 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“encumber criminal prosecutions with endless litigation with respect to the existence of exigent circumstances, whether it was practicable to get a warrant, whether the suspect was about to flee, and the like.”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Ingraham v. Wright · State v. Wren
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.