Beilan v. Board of Public Education School District of Philadelphia’s Empirical Analysis
1958
Citation profile
81 federal appellate · 26 district · 122 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 369 later decisions (54 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2025 · most notably Cafeteria & Restaurant Workers Union, Local 473 v. McElroy (1961), Keyishian v. Board of Regents of Univ. of State of NY (1966)
81 federal appellate · 26 district · 122 state decisions — followed in 22 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
Relies on Yick Wo v. Hopkins · National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. State of Alabama Patterson · West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette · Everson v. Board of Education · Dennis v. United States
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 369 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“By engaging in teaching in the public schools, petitioner did not give up his right to freedom of belief, speech or association. * * *”
8 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 .”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"`Incompetency' is a relative term which may be employed as meaning disqualification, inability or incapacity. It can refer to lack of legal qualifications or fitness to discharge the required duty. It may be employed to show want of physical or intellectual or moral fitness."”
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.