Estelle v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
814 federal appellate · 103 district · 1,987 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,642 later decisions (110 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Teague v. Lane (1989), Berkemer v. McCarty (1984)
814 federal appellate · 103 district · 1,987 state decisions — followed in 48 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. Cohen (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Johnson v. Zerbst · United States v. Wade · Edwards v. Arizona · Schmerber v. State of California
Cited together with Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Strickland v. Washington · Lockett v. Ohio · Wainwright v. Sykes · Buchanan v. Kentucky
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 3,642 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A criminal defendant, who neither initiates a psychiatric evaluation nor attempts to introduce any psychiatric evidence, may not be compelled to respond to a psychiatrist if his statements can be used against him at a capital sentencing proceeding.”
221 later decisions quote this exact passage“[i]n fact, the Court of Appeals recognized that `an attorney present during the psychiatric interview could contribute little and might seriously disrupt the examination'”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“a different situation arises where a defendant intends to introduce psychiatric evidence at the penalty phase”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Penry v. Johnson · Magwood v. State
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.