McDonnell v. United States

Decided June 27, 2016. John Glover Roberts Jr. delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 15-474 · 579 U.S. 550 (2016) · Cited 265 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 8–0.

“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.

• United States v. Birdsall · 233 U.S. 223 (1914)
• United States v. Sun-Diamond Growers of California · 526 U.S. 398 (1999)
• Skilling v. United States · 561 U.S. 358 (2010)
• Evans v. United States · 504 U.S. 255 (1992)
• Gustafson v. Alloyd Co. · 513 U.S. 561 (1995)
• Jarecki v. G. D. Searle & Co. · 367 U.S. 303 (1961)
• Neder v. United States · 527 U.S. 1 (1999)
• Kolender v. Lawson · 461 U.S. 352 (1983)
• United States v. Stevens · 559 U.S. 460 (2010)
• Gregory v. Ashcroft · 501 U.S. 452 (1991)
• McNally v. United States · 483 U.S. 350 (1987)
• Arlington Central School District Board of Education v. Murphy · 548 U.S. 291 (2006)
• United States v. Enmons · 410 U.S. 396 (1973)
• Johnson v. United States · 576 U.S. 591 (2015)

Cited by

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

• Snyder v. United States · 603 U.S. 1 (2024)
• Dubin v. United States · 599 U.S. 110 (2023)
• Iancu v. Brunetti · 588 U.S. 388 (2019)
• United States v. Davis · 588 U.S. 445 (2019)
• Trump v. United States · 603 U.S. 593 (2024)
• Van Buren v. United States · 593 U.S. 374 (2021)
• Fischer v. United States · 603 U.S. 480 (2024)
• City and County of San Francisco v. EPA · 604 U.S. 334 (2025)

Official text

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

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John Glover Roberts Jr.’s profile · All Supreme Court opinions · The Supreme Court

Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). 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).