Steadman’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. “Indeed, the Supreme Court has never required that an individual “speak out” in order to find shelter under the First Amendment. Where lower-level gov ernment employees have been punished because of their political beliefs and associations, the Court has held that their First Amendment rights were violated. See Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois, 497 U.S. 62 , 110 S.Ct. 2729 , 111 L.Ed.2d 52 (1990); Branti v. Finkel, 445 U.S. 507 , 100 S.Ct. 1287 , 63 L.Ed.2d 574 (1980); Elrod v. Burns, 427 U.S. 347 , 96 S.Ct. 2673 , 49 L.Ed.2d 547 (1976).... The Court found that “there is no requirement that dismissed employees prove that they, or other employees, have been coerced into changing, either actually or ostensibly, their political allegiance;” they must merely show that they were “discharged because they were not affiliated with or sponsored by” a particular party. Branti, 445 U.S. at 517 , 100 S.Ct. 1287 . Following the same logic, if an employee is discharged because of her affiliation with a party, she also would be protected.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Gomez v. City of Eagle Pass

2. “purely legal where it concerns only the application of established legal principles to a given set of facts,”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Koch v. Rugg

3. “not 'legal' where it resolves a fact-related dispute of 'evidence sufficiency.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Koch v. Rugg