Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners of NM’s Empirical Analysis
1957
Citation profile
809 federal appellate · 266 district · 806 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,702 later decisions (160 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2024 · most notably Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth (1972), Roe v. Wade (1973)
809 federal appellate · 266 district · 806 state decisions — followed in 49 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 18 U.S.C. § 959
Relies on Yick Wo v. Hopkins · West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette · Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath · Nebbia v. People of State of New York
Cited together with Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · Konigsberg v. State Bar of Cal. · Willner v. Committee on Character and Fitness, Appellate Div. of Supreme Court of NY, First Judicial Dept. · Wieman v. Updegraff · Perry v. Sindermann
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 2,702 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A State can require high standards of qualification, such as good moral character or proficiency in its law, before it admits an applicant to the bar, but any qualification must have a rational connection with the applicant's fitness or capacity to practice law.”
81 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“It is a fair characterization of the lawyer’s responsibility in our society that he stands “as a shield,” to quote Devlin, J., in defense of right and to ward off wrong. From a profession charged with such responsibilities there must be exacted those qualities of truth-speaking, of a high sense of honor, of granite discretion, of the strictest observance of fiduciary responsibility, that have, throughout the centuries, been compendiously described as “moral character.””
25 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“The mere fact that a man has been arrested has very little, if any, probative value in showing that he has engaged in any misconduct. An arrest shows nothing more than that someone probably suspected the person apprehended of an offense. When formal charges are not filed against the arrested person and he is released without trial, whatever probative force the arrest may have had is normally dissipated.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Paul v. Davis · Utz v. Cullinane
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.