Vaca v. Sipes’s Empirical Analysis
1967
Citation profile
3,614 federal appellate · 1,086 district · 1,174 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 10,460 later decisions (130 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2025 · most notably DelCostello v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters (1983), Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co. (1974)
3,614 federal appellate · 1,086 district · 1,174 state decisions — followed in 44 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 United Steelworkers v. American Manufacturing Co. · San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon · Steele v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad · Phelps Dodge Corporation v. National Labor Relations Board
Cited together with Ford Motor Co v. Huffman International Union United Automobile Aircraft and Agricultural Implementworkers of America Ci · Hines v. Anchor Motor Freight, Inc. · Humphrey v. Moore · DelCostello v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters · Steele v. Louisville & Nashville Railroad
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 10,460 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.”
328 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“to serve the interests of all members without hostility or discrimination toward any, to exercise its discretion with complete good faith and honesty, and to avoid arbitrary conduct.”
158 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“unlimited discretion to deprive injured employees of all remedies for breach of contract.”
132 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.