North Carolina v. Butler’s Empirical Analysis
1979
Citation profile
711 federal appellate · 272 district · 2,059 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,730 later decisions (53 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2025 · most notably Edwards v. Arizona (1981), Colorado v. Connelly (1986)
711 federal appellate · 272 district · 2,059 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 Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Schneckloth v. Bustamonte · Johnson v. Zerbst · Gideon v. Wainwright
Cited together with Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Edwards v. Arizona · Johnson v. Zerbst · Moran v. Burbine · Fare v. Michael C.
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 3,730 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[t]he courts must presume that a defendant did not waive his rights.”
142 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the particular facts and circumstances surrounding that case, including the background, experience, and conduct of the accused.”
52 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“heavy burden rests on the government to demonstrate that the defendant knowingly and intelligently waived his privilege against self-incrimination and his right to retained or appointed counsel.”
25 later decisions 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.