Sweatt v. Painter’s Empirical Analysis
339 U.S. 629 · 1950
Citation profile
207 federal appellate · 33 district · 79 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 566 later decisions (76 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2016 · most notably Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al. (1954), San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973)
207 federal appellate · 33 district · 79 state decisions — followed in 13 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 Shelley v. Kraemer · Plessy v. Ferguson · Rescue Army v. Municipal Court of Los Angeles · State of Missouri Gaines v. Canada
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 566 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“qualities which are incapable of objective measurement but which make for greatness.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“* * * Equal protection of the laws is not achieved through indiscriminate imposition of inequalities.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“we cannot find substantial equality in the educational opportunities offered white and Negro law students by the state.... With such a substantial and significant segment of society excluded, we cannot conclude that the education offered petitioner is substantially equal to that which he would receive if admitted to the University of Texas Law School.... It is fundamental that these cases [addressing race distinctions in graduate education] concern rights which are personal and present. 75”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Ayers v. Allain
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.