Harmon v. Brucker’s Empirical Analysis
243 F.2d 613 · 1957
Citation profile
26 federal appellate · 2 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 34 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 1986 · most notably Harmon v. Brucker (1958), Roelofs v. Secretary of the Air Force (1980)
26 federal appellate · 2 district ·
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.
Appellate journey
Relationships
Relies on Larson v. Domestic & Foreign Commerce Corp. · Orloff v. Willoughby · Wieman v. Updegraff · Burns v. Wilson · Switchmen's Union of North America v. National Mediation Board
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 34 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““We know that from top to bottom of the Army the complaint is often made, and sometimes with justification, that there is discrimination, favoritism or other objectionable handling of men. But judges are not given the task of running the Army. The responsibility for setting up channels through which such grievances can be considered and fairly settled rests upon the Congress and upon the President of the United States and his subordinates. The military constitutes a specialized community governed by a separate discipline from that of the civilian. Orderly government requires that the judiciary be as scrupulous not to interfere with legitimate Army matters as the Army must be scrupulous not to intervene in judicial matters.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““Reason, flowing from the doctrine of the separation of powers, dictates that in many fields the administrative discretion of the executive branch and the legislative discretion of the legislative branch be not subject to interference or review by the courts. In no field is this doctrine more pertinent and important than in the operation of the armed forces. Provisions for the establishment and operation of such forces necessary to the security of this country are wholly legislative matters, and the administration of those forces is the very essence of executive action. The Constitution so provides. Only in the most extreme cases can the judiciary interfere in this area.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“every soldier gets an honorable discharge unless there is some blemish on his record on account of which he receives a discharge other than honorable.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Ives v. Franke
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.