Sumner v. Mata’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
846 federal appellate · 97 district · 47 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,633 later decisions (36 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2019 · most notably Wainwright v. Witt (1985), Miller v. Fenton (1985)
846 federal appellate · 97 district · 47 state decisions — followed in 13 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
reviewedMata v. Sumner (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Simmons v. United States · Neil v. Biggers · Cuyler v. Sullivan · Rose v. Lundy · Brewer v. Williams
Cited together with Sumner v. Mata · Strickland v. Washington · Marshall v. Lonberger · Townsend v. Sain · Neil v. Biggers
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 1,633 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“to show a high measure of deference to the factfindings made by the state courts.”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Federal court may give different weight to the facts as found by the state court and may reach a different conclusion in light of the legal standard”
27 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““In any proceeding instituted in a Federal court by an application for a writ of habeas corpus by a person in custody pursuant to the judgment of a State court, a determination after a hearing on the merits of a factual issue, made by a State court of competent jurisdiction in a proceeding to which the applicant for the writ and the State or an officer or agent thereof were parties, evidenced by a written finding, written opinion, or other reliable and adequate written indicia, shall be presumed to be correct____” (emphasis supplied). 2”
18 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.