Fortson v. Morris’s Empirical Analysis
1966
Citation profile
38 federal appellate · 15 district · 27 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 167 later decisions (25 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2024 · most notably Buckley v. Valeo (1976), Northern Pipeline Construction Co. v. Marathon Pipe Line Co. (1982)
38 federal appellate · 15 district · 27 state decisions
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 Baker v. Carr · Reynolds v. Sims · Malloy v. Hogan · Village of Euclid Ohio v. Ambler Realty Co · M'Culloch v. State of Maryland
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 167 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“There is no provision of the United States Constitution or any of its amendments which either expressly or impliedly dictates the method a State must use to select its Governor.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““[n]ot a word in the [Gray] Court’s opinion indicated that it was intended to compel a State to elect its governors or any other state officers or agents through elections of the people rather than through selections by appointment or elections by the State Assembly. It is wrongly cited as having either expressly or impliedly decided that a State cannot, if it wishes, permit its legislative body to elect its Governor.” 385 U.S. at 233 , 87 S.Ct. at 448.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Patterson v. Burns““In Toombs v. Fortson, 384 U.S. 210 [ 86 S.Ct. 1464 , 16 L.Ed.2d 482 ], affirming [D.C.], 241 F.Supp. 65 , we held that with certain exceptions, not here material, the Georgia Assembly could continue to function until May 1, 1968. Consequently the Georgia Assembly is not disqualified to elect a Governor as required by Article V of the State’s Constitution.” (p. 235, 87 S.Ct. p. 449.)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Cohen v. Ketchum
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.