King’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 district · 1 state decisions

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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Generally, mere verbal threats made by a state-actor do not constitute a § 1983 claim.” Hopson v. Fredericksen, 961 F.2d 1374, 1378 (8th Cir.1992). “The Constitution does not protect against all intrusions on one’s peace of mind. Fear or emotional injury which results solely from verbal harassment or idle threats is generally not sufficient to constitute an invasion of an identified liberty interest.” Pittsley v. Warish, 927 F.2d 3, 7 (1st Cir.1991) (police’s threats to children that they would not see their step-father again did not constitute violation of children’s right to familial relations) [, cert. denied, 502 U.S. 879 , 112 S.Ct. 226 , 116 L.Ed.2d 183 (1991) ]; see Emmons v. McLaughlin, 874 F.2d 351, 353-54 (6th Cir.1989); Lamar v. Steele, 698 F.2d 1286, 1286 (5th Cir.1983) (per curiam) [, cert. denied, 464 U.S. 821 , 104 S.Ct. 86 , 78 L.Ed.2d 95 (1983) ]. We have held that a threat constitutes an actionable constitutional violation only when the threat is so brutal or wantonly cruel as to shock the conscience, see Hopson, 961 F.2d at 1378-79 , or if the threat exerts coercive pressure on the plaintiff and the plaintiff suffers the deprivation of a constitutional right. See Bishop v. Tice, 622 F.2d 349, 354 (8th Cir.1980). We conclude that the alleged threats made by Barta and Kindem, although seemingly inappropriate, do not rise to the level of a constitutional violation. Barta and Kindem did not exhibit any conduct suggesting that they intended to take action on th”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hunter v. S.D. Dept. of Soc. Servs. · 173 F. Supp. 2d 876 - Busch v. City of Anthon, Iowa

2. “interfered with [Mr. and Mrs. King's] right to familial relations by coercing and manipulating them with threats that Social Services would take [two of their children] unless the Kings 'cooperat[ed] with what the government wanted to do to [another one of their children].'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hunter v. S.D. Dept. of Soc. Servs.

3. “a threat constitutes an actionable constitutional violation only when the threat is so brutal or wantonly cruel as to shock the conscience ... or if the threat exerts coercive pressure on the plaintiff and the plaintiff suffers the deprivation of a constitutional right.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hunter v. S.D. Dept. of Soc. Servs.