Engel v. Vitale’s Empirical Analysis
1962
Citation profile
504 federal appellate · 172 district · 198 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,476 later decisions (110 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Buckley v. Valeo (1976), Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969)
504 federal appellate · 172 district · 198 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 31 U.S.C. § 324 · 31 U.S.C. § 5114 · 36 U.S.C. § 169h · 36 U.S.C. § 301 · 38 U.S.C. § 1801 · 42 U.S.C. § 1751 (Child Nutrition Amendments of 1978) · 42 U.S.C. § 291 · 4 U.S.C. § 4
Relies on McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher · West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette · Massachusetts v. Mellon · Everson v. Board of Education · Zorach v. Clauson
Cited together with School District of Abington Township Pennsylvania v. Schempp J Murray III · Lemon v. Kurtzman · Everson v. Board of Education · Zorach v. Clauson · Lynch v. Donnelly
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 1,476 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The history of man is inseparable from the history of religion.”
93 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“respecting an establishment of religion.”
16 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“solemn avowal of divine faith and supplication for the blessings of the Almighty”
10 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.