Sutton’s Empirical Analysis
Citation profile
8 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 85 later decisions — most recently February 2025 · most notably No. 05-2361 (2007), Starko, Inc. v. Gallegos (2006)
8 district · 2 state decisions
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 Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Hudson v. Palmer · Turner v. Safley · United States v. W. T. Grant Co. · Procunier v. Martinez
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 85 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A defendant in a civil rights action must have personal involvement in the alleged wrongs .... [P]ersonal involvement can be shown through allegations of personal direction or of actual knowledge and acquiescence.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Rodriguez v. Thomas · No. 05-2361“An official sued under § 1983 is entitled to qualified immunity unless it is shown that the official violated a statutory or constitutional right that was clearly established at the time of the challenged conduct.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Dewey Barnett, II v. Brenda Short · C.N., Individually and as Guardian Ad Litem of J.N., a Minor L.M., Individually and as Guardian Ad Litem of V.M., a Minor M.E., Individually and as Guardian Ad Litem of J.E., a Minor v. Ridgewood Board of Education Frederick J. Stokley Joyce Snider Ronald Verdicchio Robert Weakley John Mucciolo Anthony Bencivenga Sheila Brogan“beliefs need not be acceptable, logical, consistent, or comprehensible to others to merit First Amendment protection.”
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.