Almost ten years ago, we blogged about how we applied scholarly indexing to the U.S. Supreme Court Library. Then, a few months later we announced that we added links for users to access the articles which cite cases in HeinOnline, otherwise known as Hein’s ScholarCheck. Check out this snippet of our old interface from 2008!

What’s new since our last two blog posts? We have drastically updated our interface, and not only can users access articles which cite a case, but they can also access cases which cite a case! Fast forward nearly ten years, and let’s now take a look at the top 50 most-cited U.S. Supreme Court cases in HeinOnline!

Top 50 Most-Cited U.S. Supreme Court Cases

Since the last two blogs, Hein’s ScholarCheck has been enhanced to include case law statistics, thanks to a partnership with Fastcase. For this blog, let’s break up the rankings by most-cited by articles and most-cited by cases. First, we’ll start with most-cited by articles. Enter the U.S. Supreme Court Library and click on U.S. Reports.

Next, using the search bar enter an asterisk (*) and click the search button.

From the results page, choose Number of Times Cited by Articles from the Sort by option.

Here is a list of the top 25 most-cited (by articles) U.S. Supreme Court cases in HeinOnline:

1. Brown v. Board of Education (347 U.S. 483): Cited by 23,395 articles!
2. Roe et al. v. Wade, District Attorney of Dallas County (410 U.S. 113): Cited by 21,692 articles!
3. Griswold et al. v. Connecticut (381 U.S. 479): Cited by 18,736 articles!
4. Miranda v. Arizona (384 U.S. 436): Cited by 14,740 articles!
5. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (376 U.S. 254): Cited by 13,492 articles!
6. Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins (304 U.S. 64): Cited by 11,935 articles!
7. Chevron U.S.A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., et al. (467 U.S. 837): Cited by 11,742 articles!
8. Mapp v. Ohio (367 U.S. 643): Cited by 11,409 articles!
9. Gideon v. Wainwright, Corrections Director (372 U.S. 335): Cited by 10,983 articles!
10. Lochner v. New York (198 U.S. 45): Cited by 10,753 articles!
11. Katz v. United States (389 U.S. 347): Cited by 10,485 articles!
12. Silas Talbot v. Hans Fred. Seeman (5 (1 Cranch) U.S. 1): Cited by 10,343 articles!
13. Plessy v. Ferguson (163 U.S. 537): Cited by 10,087 articles!
14. Baker et al. v. Carr et al. (369 U.S. 186): Cited by 9,835 articles!
15. Loving et ux. v. Virginia (388 U.S. 1): Cited by 9,625 articles!
16. Meyer v. State of Nebraska (262 U.S. 390): Cited by 9,383 articles!
17. United States v. Carolene Products Co. (304 U.S. 144): Cited by 9,126 articles!
18. Pierce, Governor of Oregon, et al. v. Society of Sisters – Pierce, Governor of Oregon, et al. v. Hill Military Academy (268 U.S. 510): Cited by 8,758 articles!
19. West Virginia State Board of Education et al. v. Barnette et al. (319 U.S. 624): Cited by 8,726 articles!
20. Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania et al. v. Casey, Governor of Pennsylvania, et al. (505 U.S. 833): Cited by 8,722 articles!
21. San Antonio Independent School District et al. v. Rodriguez et al. (411 U.S. 1): Cited by 8,695 articles!
22. Terry v. Ohio (392 U.S. 1): Cited by 8,423 articles!
23. Buckley et al. v. Valeo, Secretary of the United States Senate, et al. (424 U.S. 1): Cited by 8,372 articles!
24. Olmstead et al. v. United States – Green et al. v. Same – McInnis v. Same (277 U.S. 438): Cited by 8,324 articles!
25. Wisconsin v. Yoder et al. (406 U.S. 205): Cited by 8,161 articles!

Now, let’s run the same search, this time choosing Number of Times Cited by Cases using the Sort by option.

Here is a list of the top 25 most-cited (by cases) U.S. Supreme Court cases:

1. Anderson et al. v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. et al. (477 U.S. 242): Cited by 146,042 cases!
2. Bell Atlantic Corp. et al. v. Twombly et al. (550 U.S. 544): Cited by 137,814 cases!
3. Celotex Corp v. Catrett, Administratrix of the Estate of Catrett (477 U.S. 317): Cited by 134,545 cases!
4. Strickland, Superintendent, Florida State Prison, et al. v. Washington (466 U.S. 668): Cited by 108,480 cases!
5. Ashcroft, Former Attorney General, et al. v. Iqbal et al. (556 U.S. 662): Cited by 108,107 cases!
6. Matsushita Electronic Industrial Co., Ltd. et al. v. Zenith Radio Corp. et al. (475 U.S. 574): Cited by 69,542 cases!
7. Jackson v. Virginia et al. (443 U.S. 307): Cited by 63,109 cases!
8. Miranda v. Arizona (384 U.S. 436): Cited by 49,020 cases!
9. Anders v. California (386 U.S. 738): Cited by 48,645 cases!
10. Slack v. McDaniel, Warden, et al. (529 U.S. 473): Cited by 41,747 cases!
11. Thomas v. Arn, Superintendent, Ohio Reformatory for Women (474 U.S. 140): Cited by 40,872 cases!
12. Monell et al. v. Department of Social Services of the City of New York et al. (436 U.S. 658): Cited by 35,714 cases!
13. McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green (411 U.S. 792): Cited by 33,901 cases!
14. Conley et al. v. Gibson et al. (355 U.S. 41): Cited by 33,578 cases!
15. Richardson, Secretary of Health Education, and Welfare v. Perales (402 U.S. 389): Cited by 33,327 cases!
16. Terry v. Ohio (392 U.S. 1): Cited by 30,275 cases!
17. Haines v. Kerner et al. (404 U.S. 519): Cited by 29,570 cases!
18. Miller-El v. Cockrell, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional Division (537 U.S. 322): Cited by 28,888 cases!
19. Brady v. Maryland (373 U.S. 83): Cited by 27,372 cases!
20. Estelle, Corrections Director, et al. v. Gamble (429 U.S. 97): Cited by 27,210 cases!
21. Farmer v. Brennan, Warden, et al. (511 U.S. 825): Cited by 25,920 cases!
22. Neitzke et al. v. Williams (490 U.S. 319): Cited by 25,920 cases!
23. Harlow et al. v. Fitzgerald (457 U.S. 800): Cited by 21,227 cases!
24. Williams v. Taylor, Warden (529 U.S. 362): Cited by 20,761 cases!
25. Chapman et al. v. California (386 U.S. 18): Cited by 19,811 cases!

Fun Fact: HeinOnline links to Oyez, a free law project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law. It’s a multimedia archive dedicated to making Supreme Court case law available to everyone. The website offers transcript-synchronized and searchable audio, easily understandable case summaries, illustrated decision information, and opinions. Oyez also has detailed information on current and past Supreme Court justices and offers a panoramic tour of the Supreme Court building. To listen to the audio recordings, simply click on the Oyez icon listed next to a case name in the U.S. Supreme Court Library. Audio recordings are available for cases from October 1955 forward.

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