Brown v. Board of Education’s Empirical Analysis
1955
Citation profile
1,795 federal appellate · 228 district · 212 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,695 later decisions (168 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2025 · most notably Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. (1970), National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. Y Button (1963)
1,795 federal appellate · 228 district · 212 state decisions — followed in 33 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. § 2281
Relies on Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al. · Bolling v. Sharpe · Hecht Co. v. Bowles · Alexander v. Hillman
Cited together with Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al. · Green v. County School Board of New Kent County · Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education · Cooper v. Aaron · Milliken v. Bradley
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 3,695 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Traditionally, equity has been characterized by a practical flexibility in shaping its remedies and by a facility for adjusting and reconciling public and private needs.”
118 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the cases are remanded to the District Courts to take such proceedings and enter such orders and decrees consistent with this opinion as are necessary and proper to admit to public schools on a racially nondiscriminatory basis with all deliberate speed the parties to these cases. (Emphasis supplied.)”
24 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(a) would a decree necessarily follow providing that, within the limits set by normal geographic school districting, Negro children should forthwith be admitted to schools of their choice, or "(b) may this court, in the exercise of its equity powers, permit an effective gradual adjustment to be brought about from existing segregated systems to a system not based on color distinctions? * * * "5. (d) should this Court remand to the courts of first instance with directions to frame decrees in these cases, and if so what general directions should the decrees of this Court include and what procedures should the courts of first instance follow in arriving at the specific terms of more detailed decrees?”
4 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.