Gerald M. Brown’s Empirical Analysis
2000
Citation profile
1 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 39 later decisions — most recently August 2021 · most notably 91 F. App'x 396 - Klimik v. Kent County Sheriff's Department (2004), 404 F. App'x 29 - Donald Aldridge v. City of Memphis (2010)
1 district · 2 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
Relies on Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · Chilingirian v. Boris · Ludwig v. Board of Trustees of Ferris State University · Renee Soper, a Minor, by Her Mother and Next Friend, Lina Soper
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 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“First, the stigmatizing statements must be made in conjunction with the plaintiffs termination from employment.... Second, a plaintiff is not deprived of his liberty interest when the employer has alleged merely improper or inadequate performance, incompetence, neglect of duty or malfeasance.... Third, the stigmatizing statements or charges must be made public. Fourth, the plaintiff must claim that the charges made against him were false. Lastly, the public dissemination must have been voluntary.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Once a plaintiff has established the existence of all five elements, he is entitled to a name-clearing hearing if he requests one.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[W]hen a nontenured employee shows he has been stigmatized by the voluntary, public dissemination of false information in the course of a decision to terminate his employment, the employer is required to afford him an opportunity to clear his name. In order to implicate one’s liberty interest, five elements must be satisfied. First, the stigmatizing statements must be made in conjunction with the plaintiffs termination from employment. Second, a plaintiff is not deprived of his liberty interest when the employer has alleged merely improper or inadequate performance, incompetence, neglect of duty or malfeasance. A charge that merely makes a plaintiff less attractive to other employers but leaves open a definite range of opportunity does not constitute a liberty deprivation. The employer must have made a statement in the course of the employee’s termination that might impose on him a stigma or other disability that would foreclose his freedom to take advantage of other employment opportunities. A moral stigma such as immorality or dishonesty is required to show a deprivation of liberty. Third, the stigmatizing charges must be made public; fourth, the plaintiff must claim that the charges made against him were false; and fifth, the public dissemination must have been voluntary. Finally, the plaintiff must request a name-clearing hearing.”
1 later decision 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.