Nix v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
1,415 federal appellate · 356 district · 2,418 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 5,434 later decisions (43 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2025 · most notably Ornelas v. United States (1996), Colorado v. Connelly (1986)
1,415 federal appellate · 356 district · 2,418 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedWilliams v. Nix (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Strickland v. Washington · Anders v. California · Terry v. Ohio · Chapman v. State of California · Wong Sun v. United States
Cited together with Wong Sun v. United States · Murray v. United States · Terry v. Ohio · Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · United States v. Leon
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 5,434 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[i]f the prosecution can establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the information ultimately or inevitably would have been discovered by lawful means.”
245 later decisions quote this exact passage“[W]hen, as here, the evidence in question would inevitably have been discovered without reference to the police error or misconduct, there is no nexus sufficient to provide a taint and the evidence is admissible.”
26 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“demonstrated historical facts capable of ready verification or impeachment.”
25 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.