Michael Cohen v. Russell K. Norris’s Empirical Analysis
300 F.2d 24 · 1962
Citation profile
161 federal appellate · 28 district · 24 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 267 later decisions — most recently October 2023 · most notably Basista v. Weir (1965), Melvin Carter v. John R. Carlson (1971)
161 federal appellate · 28 district · 24 state decisions — followed in 18 states
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 Conley v. Gibson · Mapp v. Ohio · Monroe v. Pape · Johnson v. United States · Rochin v. People of California
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 267 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““Federal courts, including this one have expressed the policy view that sec. 1983 should not be construed to make cognizable in a federal court any and all false imprisonment causes of action against police officers where the unlawfulness of the arrest is a violation of federal constitutional requirements. The formulae suggested at times for distinguishing causes of action which are cognizable in federal court from those which are not have usually required for a federal cause of action facts indicating flagrancy or an improper motive. “One serious difficulty with such formulae is that there is nothing in the language of sec. 1983, or the fourth and fourteenth amendments as presently construed, on which to base such tests. “Although the Supreme Court has found that certain defenses to a sec. 1983 cause of action exist, apparently by implication, they are defenses typical of tort causes of action. Thus common law defenses of legislative immunity and judicial immunity exist under sec. 1983. A police officer is not liable if he acted in good faith and with probable cause in making an arrest under a statute he believed to be valid even though the statute be later held invalid. “In dealing with the questions whether a person is liable under sec. 1983 only if he acted with a specific intent to deprive a person of a federal right, and in deciding that such intent was not required, the Supreme Court said section 1983 ‘should be read against the background of tort liability that makes ”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“* * * I charge you that it is * * * set out in the Constitution * * *, that every person is guaranteed the right of free assembly and free association. Under the Constitution and laws of the United States, a person is guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom from arrest, except upon probable cause, * * *. A person has a right not to be deprived of his liberty without due process of law. A person has a constitutional right of association, and a state or any officer thereof, or a city or any officer thereof, may not enforce racial segregation. * * *.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of any State or Territory, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.”
2 later decisions 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.