Blakely v. Washington’s Empirical Analysis
2004
Citation profile
4,275 federal appellate · 511 district · 9,345 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23,565 later decisions (43 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2026 · most notably United States v. Booker (2004), Rita v. United States (2007)
4,275 federal appellate · 511 district · 9,345 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.
Relationships
Relies on Apprendi v. New Jersey · Almendarez-Torres v. United States · Blockburger v. United States · In the Matter of Samuel Winship
Cited together with United States v. Booker · Apprendi v. New Jersey · United States v. Olano · Johnson v. United States · Almendarez-Torres v. United States
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 23,565 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[o]ther than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt.”
566 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“any fact that increases the penalty for a crime beyond the prescribed statutory maximum must be submitted to a jury, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt.”
189 later decisions quote this exact passage“This case is not about whether determinate sentencing is constitutional, only about how it can be implemented in a way that respects the Sixth Amendment.”
63 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
How later courts have treated this case
Across 73 classified citations — whether each later court relied on, limited, or rejected this decision:
- 33explained
- 32followed
- 8cited without characterization
Treatment is classified from each citing court's own sentence. This is a running sample — coverage grows as the classification pass proceeds; overrulings are also tracked authoritatively in the case status.