Case Citator › Griffith v. Kentucky

Griffith v. Kentucky

Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.

Limited by some courts
Court
Supreme Court of the United States
Citation
479 U.S. 314
Decided
Confirmed treatments
1
Flagged citations read
388 of 388
Citing cases (total)
3,376
Treatment dates
1998
Limited by some courts
At least one reviewed court has limited this case’s holding to narrower facts or a narrower rule. No reviewed court has overruled it. Griffith v. Kentucky remains controlling on the retroactive application of new federal constitutional rules to cases pending on direct review, but the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces limited that holding to Supreme Court decisions in United States v. Townsend; the one confirmed adverse treatment is listed below. Sixteen state-law decisions listed under Not adopted for state law chose different rules for their own law while acknowledging Griffith's federal rule.
More on how this was screened

All 388 flagged citations have been read.

Every treatment on this page is written from the citing opinion itself, with a verbatim quote, never copied from a commercial citator. A citation flagged by our screen but not shown here was read and found not to weaken this case.

3,376 later cases cite Griffith v. Kentucky; 388 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.

Relying on Griffith v. Kentucky?

This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.

Treatments

Limited

  • The Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces limited Griffith's retroactivity rule to Supreme Court decisions and declined to extend it to a lower military appellate court's decision.

    United States v. Townsend · U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces · filed

    We also note that the Supreme Court in Griffith v. Kentucky and Johnson v. United States, both supra, considered the retroactivity of its own decisions on other cases pending direct review before it or subordinate courts. See 40 MJ at 321 n. 6; United States v. Avila, 27 MJ 62 (CMA 1988) (retroactivity of Supreme Court decision in Solorio v. United States, 483 U.S. 435, 107 S.Ct. 2924, 97 L.Ed.2d 364 (1987)). We did not write the Webster decision or approve the dismissal action by a panel of the Coast Guard Court of Military Review, a subordinate appellate court. See Art. 66, UCMJ, 10 USC § 866. Moreover, no statute, judicial decision, court rule, or other legal authority has been proffered by appellant extending Griffith and Johnson to permit lower court decisions to bind a superior appellate court in these circumstances.
    Read the full opinion on CourtListener →

Does this case still carry your argument?

Describe your facts. Ezel reads Griffith v. Kentucky and the cases that treated it, then tells you whether it still holds for your situation, with citations.

Opens in Ezel Pro.

  • Checks the law as it stands today, not only this page
  • Cites every source it relies on, so you can verify it
  • Chat, drafting and research in one workspace