Burt v. Titlow

Decided November 5, 2013. Samuel A. Alito Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 12-414 · 571 U.S. 12 (2013) · Cited 2,081 times

Holding

The Sixth Circuit failed to apply the “doubly deferential” standard of review recognized by the Court's case law when it refused to credit the state court's reasonable factual fnding and assumed that counsel was ineffective where the record was silent.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 9–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Strickland v. Washington · 466 U.S. 668 (1984)
• Wood v. Allen · 558 U.S. 290 (2010)
• Lafler v. Cooper · 566 U.S. 156 (2012)
• Florida v. Nixon · 543 U.S. 175 (2004)
• Trainor v. Hernandez · 431 U.S. 434 (1977)
• Harrington v. Richter · 562 U.S. 86 (2011)
• Estelle v. McGuire · 502 U.S. 62 (1991)
• Puckett v. United States · 556 U.S. 129 (2009)
• Stone v. Powell · 428 U.S. 465 (1976)
• Von Moltke v. Gillies · 332 U.S. 708 (1948)
• Mickens v. Taylor · 535 U.S. 162 (2002)
• Rice v. Collins · 546 U.S. 333 (2006)
• Brookhart v. Janis · 384 U.S. 1 (1966)
• Tafflin v. Levitt · 493 U.S. 455 (1990)
• Cullen v. Pinholster · 563 U.S. 170 (2011)
• United States v. Detroit Timber & Lumber Co. · 200 U.S. 321 (1906)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Brumfield v. Cain · 576 U.S. 305 (2015)
• Woods v. Etherton · 578 U.S. 113 (2016)
• White v. Wheeler · 577 U.S. 73 (2015)
• Dunn v. Reeves · 594 U.S. 731 (2021)
• Brown v. Davenport · 596 U.S. 118 (2022)
• Sexton v. Beaudreaux · 585 U.S. 961 (2018)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (2013). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).