Wheat v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1988
Citation profile
887 federal appellate · 190 district · 1,292 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,312 later decisions (28 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably United States v. Gonzalez-Lopez (2006), Mickens v. Taylor (2002)
887 federal appellate · 190 district · 1,292 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. Wheat (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Strickland v. Washington · Glasser v. United States · Faretta v. California · Gideon v. Wainwright · Townsend v. Sain
Cited together with Strickland v. Washington · Cuyler v. Sullivan · Holloway v. Arkansas · Morris v. Slappy · Wood v. Georgia
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 3,312 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right ... to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.”
137 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“not only in those rare cases where an actual conflict may be demonstrated before trial, but in the more common cases where a potential for conflict exists which may or may not burgeon into an actual conflict as the trial progresses.”
87 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[f]ederal courts have an independent interest in ensuring that criminal trials are conducted within the ethical standards of the profession and that legal proceedings appear fair to all who observe them.”
51 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.