Rothgery v. Gillespie County’s Empirical Analysis
2008
Citation profile
59 federal appellate · 17 district · 231 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 441 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2025 · most notably Montejo v. Louisiana (2009), Commonwealth v. Briggs (2011)
59 federal appellate · 17 district · 231 state decisions — followed in 31 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
reviewedRothgery v. Gillespie County (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Johnson v. Zerbst · Gideon v. Wainwright · United States v. Wade · Edwards v. Arizona
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 441 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“by way of formal charge, preliminary hearing, indictment, information, or arraignment.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the government has committed itself to prosecute, the adverse positions of government and defendant have solidified, and the accused finds himself faced with the prosecutorial forces of organized society and immersed in the intricacies of substantive and procedural criminal law.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[A] criminal defendant's initial appearance before a judicial officer, where he learns the charge against him and his liberty is subject to restriction, marks the start of adversary judicial proceedings that trigger attachment of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel.”
7 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.