Freedman v. Maryland’s Empirical Analysis
1965
Citation profile
842 federal appellate · 268 district · 606 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,044 later decisions (176 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2025 · most notably Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth (1972), Ward v. Rock Against Racism (1989)
842 federal appellate · 268 district · 606 state decisions — followed in 41 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 National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. Y Button · Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization · Thornhill v. Alabama · Speiser v. Randall
Cited together with Bantam Books, Inc. v. Sullivan · Southeastern Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad · Fw/pbs Inc II v. City of Dallas Mjr Inc · Shuttlesworth v. City of Birmingham · City of Lakewood v. Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
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 3,044 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[a]ny restraint imposed in advance of a final judicial determination on the merits must ... be limited to preservation of the status quo for the shortest fixed period compatible with sound judicial resolution.”
109 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(1) any restraint prior to judicial review can be imposed only for a specified brief period during which the status quo must be maintained; (2) expeditious judicial review of that decision must be available; and (3) the censor must bear the burden of going to court to suppress the speech and must bear the burden of proof once in court.”
23 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“In the area of freedom of expression it is well established that one has standing to challenge a statute on the ground that it delegates overly broad licensing discretion to an administrative office, whether or not his conduct could be proscribed by a properly drawn statute, and whether or not he applied for a license.”
18 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.