Chaplinsky v. State of New Hampshire’s Empirical Analysis
315 U.S. 568 · 1942
Citation profile
868 federal appellate · 271 district · 2,119 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,491 later decisions (299 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), Connick v. Myers (1983)
868 federal appellate · 271 district · 2,119 state decisions — followed in 50 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 Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Thornhill v. Alabama · Schneider v. State · Near v. State of Minnesota Olson
Cited together with Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Terminiello v. Chicago · Cohen v. California · New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Gooding v. Wilson
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 4,491 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order and morality.”
286 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“No person shall address any offensive, derisive or annoying word to any other person who is lawfully in any street or other public place, nor call him by any offensive or derisive name, nor make any noise or exclamation in his presence and hearing with intent to deride, offend or annoy him, or to prevent him from pursuing his lawful business or occupation.”
22 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““You are a God dammed racketeer” and “a dammed Fascist and the whole government of Rochester are Fascists or agents of Fascists.” Id. at 569 , 62 S.Ct. 766 .”
14 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.