Bates v. Hunt’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

22 federal appellate · 1 district · 1 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 38 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “does not have much protection under the First Amendment when he speaks or acts in a hostile way toward his employer”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Dabbs v. Amos Cabarrus County Board of Education · McVey v. Stacy

2. “Treating unequals equally can be unfair. Heatherly and Bates had much different levels of state government experience and were paid much differently. We know of no appellate decision on the Equal Protection clause that holds that the length and the nature of experience in government service cannot be relied on in fixing the pay of employees doing similar work. Bates cites no such case and neither did the district court. Nothing in the Equal Protection Clause plainly says that relevant experience cannot be considered.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Blount v. Alabama Cooperative Extension Service

3. “The Governor of Alabama is elected to lead and to serve the state and its people— a mission of extraordinary importance. If he is to be successful in this difficult mission, he must make effective use of his limited staff. And the Governor need not allow events to unfold to the point where disruption and inefficiency in the Governor’s office become open and obvious, before he constitutionally can discharge an employee. See Connick, 461 U.S. at 151-52 , 103 S.Ct. at 1692 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Douglas v. Evans