Matthews v. Jones’s Empirical Analysis
35 F.3d 1046 · 1994
Citation profile
28 federal appellate · 4 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 111 later decisions — most recently January 2023 · most notably Alkire v. Irving (2003), Everson v. Leis (2009)
28 federal appellate · 4 district ·
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 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Graham v. Connor · City of Canton v. Harris · Will v. Michigan Department of State Police · Tennessee v. Garner
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 111 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A suit against an individual in his official capacity is the equivalent of a suit against the governmental entity.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[Plaintiff] was obviously fleeing in an attempt to evade the police; the area into which he fled in the darkness provided a strategic advantage to [plaintiff] in that he could easily ambush the officers; and [plaintiff’s] extreme behavior provided cause for the officers to believe that he was involved in activity considerably more ne farious than mere traffic violations. We hold that a reasonable police officer under these circumstances would have believed that [plaintiff] posed a threat to the officers’ safety as well as the safety of others ____”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Because ‘[t]he test of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment is not capable of precise definition or mechanical application,’ ... its proper application requires careful attention to the facts and circumstances of each particular case, including the severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight.”
2 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.