McConnell United States Senator et al. v. Federal Election Commission et al.’s Empirical Analysis
2003
Citation profile
435 federal appellate · 256 district · 151 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,320 later decisions (46 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010), Davis v. Federal Election Commission (2008)
435 federal appellate · 256 district · 151 state decisions — followed in 21 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. A case is still cited after being overruled — to note the reversal, distinguish it, or in dissent. 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
reviewedthe decision below (from District of Columbia District Court)
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 201 (Bank Bribery Amendments) · 18 U.S.C. § 607 · 18 U.S.C. § 608 (§ 202 of the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act) · 18 U.S.C. § 610 · 26 U.S.C. § 501 · 26 U.S.C. § 527 · 2 U.S.C. § 431 (§ 301 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971) · 2 U.S.C. § 434 (§ 304 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971)
Relies on Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife · Warth v. Seldin · New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment · Buckley v. Valeo
Cited together with Buckley v. Valeo · Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission · Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife · Federal Election Commission v. Massachusetts Citizens for Life, Inc. · Federal Election Commission v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc.
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 1,320 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[b]ecause the communicative value of large contributions inheres mainly in their ability to facilitate the speech of their recipients, ... contribution limits impose serious burdens on free speech only if they are so low as to 'preven[t] candidates and political committees from amassing the resources necessary for effective advocacy.'”
54 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“substantial likelihood that the requested relief will remedy the alleged injury in fact.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Buckley 's magic-words requirement is functionally meaningless,”
10 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.