Schieber’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 district · 6 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 57 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(1) the harm ultimately caused to the plaintiff was foreseeable and fairly direct; (2) the state-actor acted in willful disregard for the plaintiffs safety; (3) there was some relationship between the state and the plaintiff; and (4) the state-actor used his authority to create an opportunity for danger that otherwise would not have existed.”

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. L.R. v. School District · Hoffman Ex Rel. Estate of Hoffman v. Borough of Avalon

2. “We have ... rejected the lowest common denominator of customary tort liability as any mark of sufficiently shocking conduct, and have held that the Constitution does not guarantee due care on the part of state officials; liability for negligently inflicted harm is categorically beneath the threshold of constitutional due process .... It is, on the contrary, behavior at the other end of the culpability spectrum that would most probably support a substantive due process claim; conduct intended to injure in some way unjustifiable by any government interest is the sort of official action most likely to rise to the conscience-shocking level .... Whether the point of the conscience shocking is reached when injuries are produced with culpability falling within the middle range, following from something more than negligence but less than intentional conduct, such as recklessness or gross negligence ... is a matter for closer calls.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Customers Bank v. Municipality of Norristown · 652 F. Supp. 2d 611 - Beard v. Borough of Duncansville

3. “This Court has jurisdiction to review a District Court denying qualified immunity at the summary judgment stage under the collateral order doctrine to the extent that the denial turns on questions of law. We exercise plenary review over the questions of law. We have no jurisdiction, however, in an interlocutory appeal to review a District Court’s determination that there is sufficient record evidence to support a set of facts under which there would be no immunity. Thus, where the District Court has adopted a set of facts for the purpose of ruling on the qualified immunity issue, we must accept those facts when reviewing a denial of immunity.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Sherri Stevens v. Delaware County