24 N.C. App. 209 - Cline v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
8 federal appellate · 25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 33 later decisions — most recently July 2016 · most notably Berkey v. Delia (1980), Nader v. De Toledano (1979)
8 federal appellate · 25 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 New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · St. Amant v. Thompson · Rosenblatt v. Baer · Time Incorporated v. Pape · Henry v. Collins
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 33 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The Court in Sullivan did not specify how far down the governmental hierarchy the privilege of comment on governmental conduct would go. . . . ‘Criticism of those responsibe [sic] for government operations must be free, lest criticism of government itself be penalized. It is clear, therefore, that the “public official” designation applies at the very least to those among the hierarchy of government employees who have, or appear to the publice [sic] to have, substantial responsibility for or control over the conduct of governmental affairs.’ ””
1 later decision quote this exact passage“). As the court noted in Cline v. Brown , supra, 449: The relationship between a sheriff and his deputy is . . . an official and not a private relationship. The deputy is a representative of the sheriff in his official capacity. He is a public officer whose authority and duties are regulated and prescribed by law. The public generally regards the acts of a deputy sheriff as the acts of the sheriff himself. The sheriffs position in government vests in him and his deputies”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“substantial responsibility for or control over the conduct of governmental affairs.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.