Adler v. Board of Education of City of New York’s Empirical Analysis
1952
Citation profile
236 federal appellate · 68 district · 217 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 746 later decisions (82 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2023 · most notably Connick v. Myers (1983), Elrod v. Burns (1976)
236 federal appellate · 68 district · 217 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.
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1257
Relies on Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority · Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath · United Public Workers of America v. Mitchell · American Communications Ass'n v. Douds · Gitlow v. People of the State of New York
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 746 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A teacher works in a sensitive area in a schoolroom. There he shapes the attitude of young minds towards the society in which they live. In this, the state has a vital concern. It must preserve the integrity of the schools. That the school authorities have the right and the duty to screen the officials, teachers, and employees as to their fitness to maintain the integrity of the schools as a part of ordered society, cannot be doubted.”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““We think that a municipal employer is not disabled because it is an agency of the State from inquiring of its employees as to matters that may prove relevant to fitness and suitability for the public service. Past conduct may well relate to present fitness; past loyalty may well have a reasonable relationship to present and future trust. Both are commonly inquired into in determining fitness for both high and low positions in private industry and are not less relevant in public employment. * * * ” 341 U.S. at page 720 , 71 S.Ct. at page 912 .”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[Employees] may work for the school system upon the reasonable terms laid down by the proper authorities of New York. If they do not choose to work on such terms, they are at liberty to retain their beliefs and associations and go elsewhere.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Cook v. Hudson · Heckler v. Shepard
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.