McRae v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis
2008
Citation profile
8 federal appellate ·
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 2000B · 42 U.S.C. § 2000C · 42 U.S.C. § 2000E (§ 701 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964)
Relies on United States v. United States Gypsum Co. · City of Boerne v. Flores · Cutter et al. v. Wilkinson Director Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction · Lovelace v. Lee · United States v. Hardman
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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[I]nmates had hidden contraband and/or weapons in their hair or beard, with one prison officer being injured while “trying to shake down an inmate and shake down his hair, and there was a razor blade or something in the hair....” Director Johnson also testified that the VDOC’s Grooming Policy significantly cuts down on the number of inmate shakedowns during which a prison officer must run his hands all through an inmate’s hair and beard if he has one in order to check for hidden contraband or weapons. According to Director Johnson, prison officers are hesitant to perform shakedowns on long haired and/or bearded inmates, “inmates don’t like you putting your hands all through the[ir] hair to start with,” shakedowns are time consuming, and the VDOC does “not have enough staff to continually shake people down as they move from one area to another to prevent transporting contraband.” In sum, the less need for shakedowns the better. This fact was illustrated by Director Johnson’s testimony that approximately six months earlier, officers shaking down an inmate placed in administrative segregation for refusing to cut his hair “found pieces of wire and rope and rocks and tobacco ... that were hidden in his hair.””
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.