In re Sealed Case’s Empirical Analysis
121 F.3d 729 · 1997
Citation profile
48 federal appellate · 111 district · 21 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 269 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably State ex rel. Dann v. Taft (2006), In re Sealed Case (1998)
48 federal appellate · 111 district · 21 state decisions — followed in 12 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Mitchell v. Forsyth · Roviaro v. United States · United States v. Nixon · United States v. Calandra
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 269 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“so inextricably intertwined with the deliberative sections of documents that its disclosure would inevitably reveal the government's deliberations.”
19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“authored or solicited and received by those members of an immediate White House adviser's staff who have broad and significant responsibility for investigating and formulating the advice to be given the President on the particular matter to which the communications relate.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“documents or other materials that reflect presidential decisionmaking and deliberations and that the President believes should remain confidential.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.