Ring v. Arizona’s Empirical Analysis
2002
Citation profile
1,204 federal appellate · 219 district · 4,507 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 6,894 later decisions (77 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2025 · most notably United States v. Booker (2004), Blakely v. Washington (2004)
1,204 federal appellate · 219 district · 4,507 state decisions — followed in 47 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.
Relationships
Relies on Apprendi v. New Jersey · Almendarez-Torres v. United States · Gregg v. Georgia · Teague v. Lane · Witherspoon v. Illinois
Cited together with Apprendi v. New Jersey · Strickland v. Washington · Blakely v. Washington · Williams v. Taylor · Schriro Director Arizona Department of Corrections v. Summerlin
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 6,894 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“`the functional equivalent of an element of a greater offense'”
211 later decisions quote this exact passage“Ring's claim is tightly delineated: He contends only that the Sixth Amendment required jury findings on the aggravating circumstances asserted against him.”
35 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“to the extent that it allows a sentencing judge, sitting without a jury, to find an aggravating circumstance necessary for imposition of the death penalty.”
29 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.