Nelson v. Knox’s Empirical Analysis
256 F.2d 312 · 1958
Citation profile
50 federal appellate · 6 district · 5 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 82 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 1988 · most notably Lake Country Estates, Inc. v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (1979), Melvin Carter v. John R. Carlson (1971)
50 federal appellate · 6 district · 5 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 Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization · Tenney v. Brandhove · Stefanelli v. Minard · Picking v. Pennsylvania R. · Kenney v. Fox
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 82 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A] qualified privilege, giving them a defense against civil liability, for harms caused by acts done by them in good faith in performance of their official duty as they understood it. [ 256 F.2d at 315 , citing 202 F.2d at 707 ].”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he extent of the defendants’ insulation from liability under the Civil Rights Act cannot properly be determined by reference to the local rule in Michigan. Surely each state cannot be left to decide for itself which of its officials are completely immune from liability for depriving a citizen of rights granted by the Federal Constitution. The question must be decided as a matter of general law. 3”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“To be sure, the present action is one for money damages rather than an injunction, but that difference does not affect the question of immunity. Indeed, the Supreme Court has pointed out that under the Civil Rights Act relief in equity should sometimes be withheld even where 'comparable facts would create a cause of action for damages.' Stefanelli v. Minard, 1951, 342 U.S. 117 , at page 122, 72 S.Ct. 118, 121, 96 L.Ed. 138; see Williams v. Dalton, 6 Cir., 1956, 231 F.2d 646 , 649; Cobb v. City of Malden, 1 Cir., 1953, 202 F.2d 701 , 704-705.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Krause v. Rhodes
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.