Vitarelli v. Seaton’s Empirical Analysis
1959
Citation profile
653 federal appellate · 171 district · 167 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,772 later decisions (62 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably United States v. Nixon (1974), Cafeteria & Restaurant Workers Union, Local 473 v. McElroy (1961)
653 federal appellate · 171 district · 167 state decisions — followed in 28 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedVitarelli v. Seaton (from District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Securities and Exchange Commission v. Chenery Corporation · Service v. Dulles · Cole v. Young · Felter v. Southern Pacific Co.
Cited together with Service v. Dulles · United States Accardi v. Shaughnessy · Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · Morton v. Ruiz · 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 1,772 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“* * * generous beyond the requirements that bind such agency * * *.”
20 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“Preliminarily, it should be said that departures from departmental regulations in matters of this kind involve more than mere consideration of procedural irregularities. For in proceedings of this nature, in which the ordinary rules of evidence do not apply, in which matters involving the disclosure of confidential information are withheld, and where it must be recognized that counsel is under practical constraints in the making of objections and in the tactical handling of his case which would not obtain in a cause being tried in a court of law before trained judges, scrupulous observance of departmental procedural safeguards is clearly of particular importance. * " *”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the Secretary * * * was bound by the regulations which he himself had promulgated for dealing with such cases * * *.”
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.