Adderley v. Florida’s Empirical Analysis
1966
Citation profile
501 federal appellate · 159 district · 463 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,753 later decisions (152 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Jackson v. Virginia (1979), Bell v. Wolfish (1979)
501 federal appellate · 159 district · 463 state decisions — followed in 38 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 Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. Y Button · National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. State of Alabama Patterson · Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization · Shelton v. Tucker
Cited together with Cox v. State of Louisiana · Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization · Greer v. Spock · Perry Education Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n · Edwards v. South Carolina
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 1,753 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The State, no less than a private owner of property, has power to preserve the property under its control for the use to which it is lawfully dedicated.”
76 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“have immemorially been held in trust for the use of the public and, time out of mind, have been used for purposes of assembly, communicating thoughts between citizens, and discussing public questions. Such use of the streets and public places has, from ancient times, been a part of the privileges, immunities, rights, and liberties of citizens. The privilege of a citizen of the United States to use the streets and parks for communication of views on national questions may be regulated in the interest of all; it is not absolute, but relative, and must be exercised in subordination to the general comfort and convenience, and in consonance with peace and good order; but it must not, in the guise of regulation, be abridged or denied.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“The constitutional guarantee of liberty implies the existence of an organized society maintaining public order, without which liberty itself would be lost in the excesses of anarchy. * * * A restriction in that relation, designed to promote the public convenience in the interest of all, and not susceptible to abuses of discriminatory application, cannot be disregarded by the attempted exercise of some civil right which, in other circumstances, would be entitled to protection.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.