Ashton v. Kentucky’s Empirical Analysis
1966
Citation profile
91 federal appellate · 30 district · 179 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 472 later decisions (35 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Grayned v. City of Rockford (1972), Grayned v. City of Rockford (1972)
91 federal appellate · 30 district · 179 state decisions — followed in 33 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 Connally v. General Construction Co. · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. Y Button · Dombrowski v. Pfister · Thornhill v. Alabama
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 472 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(v)ague laws in any area suffer a constitutional infirmity.”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[A] function of free speech under our form of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its highest purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger. Speech is often provocative and challenging. It may strike at prejudices and preconceptions and may have profound unsettling effects as it presses for acceptance of an idea. That is why freedom of speech, though not absolute, [citation] is nevertheless protected * * *. There is no room under our Constitution for a more restrictive view. For the alternative would lead to standardization of ideas either by legislatures, courts, or dominant political or community groups.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“`any writing calculated to create disturbances of the peace.'”
3 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.