Torcaso v. Watkins’s Empirical Analysis
1961
Citation profile
293 federal appellate · 100 district · 170 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 991 later decisions (130 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2024 · most notably Perry v. Sindermann (1972), Connick v. Myers (1983)
293 federal appellate · 100 district · 170 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.
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1257
Relies on McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette · Everson v. Board of Education · United Public Workers of America v. Mitchell
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 991 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““We repeat and again reaffirm that neither a State nor the Federal Government can constitutionally force a person ‘to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.’ Neither can constitutionally pass laws or impose requirements which aid all religions as against non-believers, and neither can aid those religions based on a belief in the existence of God as against those religions founded on different beliefs.””
19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Among religions in this country which do not teach what would generally be considered a belief in the existence of God are Buddhism, Taoism, Ethical Culture, Secular Humanism and others. See Washington Ethical Society v. District of Columbia, 101 U.S.App.D.C. 371 , 249 F.2d 127 ; Fellowship of Humanity v. County of Alameda, 153 Cal.App.2d 673 , 315 P.2d 394 ; II Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences 293; 4 Encyclopaedia Britannica (1957 ed.) 325-327; 21 id., at 797; Archer, Faiths Men Live By (2d ed. revised by Purinton), 120-138, 254-313; 1961 World Almanac 695, 712; Year Book of American Churches for 1961, at 29, 47. 28”
8 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.