Blanton v. Barrick’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 federal appellate · 15 state decisions

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

1. “vigorously proceed with their tasks unhampered by the fear of unlimited civil litigation.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Schenecker · Schenecker v. City City of Sioux City

2. “public policy considerations make an even stronger argument for absolute immunity for failure to prosecute than for actual prosecution. The decision to charge a defendant with a crime may well be the most critical determination in the entire prosecutorial process. That decision alone may result in the loss of a defendant’s freedom pending trial and certainly will confront him or her with the economic and social costs of a trial. There can be no question that the nature of the decision not to prosecute is “intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Beck v. Phillips

3. ““The common-law immunity of a prosecutor is based upon the same considerations that underlie the common-law immunities of judges and grand jurors acting within the scope of their duties. These include concern that harassment by unfounded litigation would cause a deflection of the prosecutor’s energies from his public duties, and the possibility that he would shade his decisions instead of exercising the independence of judgment required by his public trust.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Beck v. Phillips