Anderson v. Davila’s Empirical Analysis
125 F.3d 148 · 1997
Citation profile
23 federal appellate · 34 district · 7 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 162 later decisions — most recently May 2025 · most notably Estate of Smith v. Marasco (2003), Eichenlaub v. Township of Indiana (2004)
23 federal appellate · 34 district · 7 state decisions
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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1292 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 48 U.S.C. § 1561
Relies on Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle · Perry v. Sindermann · Connick v. Myers · Elrod v. Burns · City of Los Angeles v. Lyons
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 162 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A]n otherwise legitimate and constitutional government act can become unconstitutional when an individual demonstrates that it was taken in retaliation for his exercise of First Amendment speech.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[e]very person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory ... subjects, or causes to be subjected, any ... person ... to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“benefit of initiating litigation without the harassment of otherwise uncalled for surveillance, simply because [plaintiff] filed a potentially vexatious lawsuit.”
2 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.