Allen v. Nelson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 federal appellate · 5 district ·

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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “While much weight should be given to the determination of prison administrators that the deprivation of privileges is required in the particular case, the Court feels it must be bottomed on a showing of a reasonable relationship between the necessity to limit the liberty of the prisoner and the accomplishment of a legitimate penal aim. . . . Talismanic labels such as “protection”, “threat to security” and the like cannot serve to validate solitary confinement unless prison officials can point to more specific penal objectives when they are faced by a legal challenge. Such a justification is a burden necessarily placed on prison administrators when they seek to establish a rational basis for administrative segregation. Allen v. Nelson, 354 F.Supp. 505, 512 (N.D.Cal.), aff’d 484 F.2d 960 (9th Cir. 1973).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 423 F. Supp. 1250 - Nadeau v. Helgemoe