Duckworth v. Serrano’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
329 federal appellate · 84 district · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 815 later decisions (18 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Rose v. Lundy (1982), William O'sullivan v. Darren Boerckel (1999)
329 federal appellate · 84 district · 6 state decisions
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
reviewedEvans v. Lane (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Brown v. Allen · Picard v. Connor · Royall · WILWORDING Et Al. v. SWENSON, WARDEN · Ex Parte Hawk No - on Rule to Show Cause and Return
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 815 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“An exception [to the exhaustion requirement] is made only if there is no opportunity to obtain redress in state court or if the corrective process is so clearly deficient as to render futile any effort to obtain relief.”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Ladany v. Tate · Myman v. Rhode“serves to minimize friction between our federal and state systems of justice by allowing the State an initial opportunity to pass upon and correct alleged violations of prisoners' federal rights”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“it would be unseemly in our dual system of government for a federal district court to upset a state court conviction without an opportunity to the state courts to correct a constitutional violation,”
14 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.