Bell v. Hood’s Empirical Analysis
327 U.S. 678 · 1946
Citation profile
3,442 federal appellate · 1,137 district · 123 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 8,691 later decisions (211 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably Brady v. State of Maryland (1963), Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York (1978)
3,442 federal appellate · 1,137 district · 123 state decisions — followed in 28 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedBell v. Hood (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 8 U.S.C. § 41
Relies on William Marbury v. James Madison · Gully v. First Nat. Bank in Meridian · Burdeau v. McDowell · Hurn v. Oursler
Cited together with Hagans v. Lavine · Monroe v. Pape · Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics · Gully v. First Nat. Bank in Meridian · Conley v. Gibson
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 8,691 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“clearly appears to be immaterial and made solely for the purpose of obtaining jurisdiction or where such a claim is wholly insubstantial and frivolous.”
476 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a plaintiff must make a prima facie showing of two elements: (1) that the act or omission deprived plaintiff of a right, privilege or immunity secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States, and (2) that the act or omission was done by a person acting under color of law.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““In other words, if this action may be maintained without the determination of a federal question, then this Court has no jurisdiction, since the action has a sufficient non-federal foundation to support it. To summarize, to give this Court jurisdiction, (a) this action must be founded upon a claim or right arising under the Constitution or laws of the United States; (b) it must be such that the construction or interpretation of the Constitution or a federal statute will support or defeat the action depending upon the construction or interpretation given by the Court on the trial of the action; (c) a genuine and present controversy must exist as to the construction or interpretation of the Constitution or of a statute of the United States; (d) the controversy must be disclosed upon the face of the complaint, unaided by the answer or petition for removal.””
3 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.