Ramirez v. Pugh’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 federal appellate · 1 district · 3 state decisions

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. “Whether the requisite connection may be found solely on the basis of “common sense” will depend on the nature of the right, the nature of the interest asserted, the nature of the prohibition, and the obviousness of its connection to the proffered interest. The showing required will vary depending on how close the court perceives the connection to be.... On remand, the District Court must describe the interest served, consider whether the connection between the policy and the interest is obvious or attenuated — and, thus, to what extent some foundation or evidentiary showing is necessary — and, in light of this determination, evaluate what the government has offered.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Brittain v. Beard · Jones v. Brown

2. “Certainly falling within the legitimate bounds of the interest [in rehabilitation] are prison policies designed to target the specific behavioral patterns that led to a prisoner’s incarceration in the first place, or behavioral patterns emerging during incarceration that present a threat of lawbreaking activity other than that for which the prisoner was confined. To say, however, that rehabilitation legitimately includes the promotion of “values,” broadly defined, with no particularized identification of an existing harm towards which the rehabilitative efforts are addressed, would essentially be to acknowledge that prisoners’ First Amendment rights are subject to the pleasure of their custodians.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Brittain v. Beard

3. “As a threshold inquiry, “there must be a Valid, rational connection’ between the prison regulation and the legitimate governmental interest put forward to justify it.” ... Courts must then determine “whether there are alternative means of exercising the right that remain open” to prisoners, and “[what] impact accommodation of the asserted constitutional right will have on guards and other inmates, and on the allocation of prison resources generally.” ... Finally, a regulation’s reasonableness may be evidenced by “the absence of ready alternatives” that would fully accommodate the constitutional right “at de minimis cost to valid penological interests.” ...”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 420 F. Supp. 2d 406 - Jewell v. Gonzales