Sailors v. Board of Ed. of Kent Cty.’s Empirical Analysis
1967
Citation profile
148 federal appellate · 78 district · 187 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 719 later decisions (46 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2024 · most notably Kramer v. Union Free School District No. 15 (1969), City of Lafayette Louisiana v. Louisiana Power & Light Company (1978)
148 federal appellate · 78 district · 187 state decisions — followed in 32 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 Reynolds v. Sims · Cooper v. Aaron · Gomillion v. Lightfoot · Wesberry v. Sanders · Joseph Lochner v. People of the State of New York
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 719 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Viable local governments may need many innovations, numerous combinations of old and new devices, great flexibility in municipal arrangements to meet changing urban conditions.”
19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“At least as respects nonlegislative officers, a State can appoint local officials or elect them or combine the elective and appointive systems as was done here. If we assume arguendo that where a State provides for an election of a local official or agency — whether administrative, legislative, or judicial — the requirements of Gray v. Sanders [ 372 U.S. 368 , 83 S.Ct. 801, 9 L.Ed.2d 821] and Reynolds v. Sims must be met, no question of that character is presented. For while there was an election here for the local school board, no constitutional complaint is raised respecting that election. Since the choice of members of the county school board did not involve an election and since none was required for these nonlegislative offices, the principle of `one man, one vote' has no relevancy.”
14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“We find no constitutional reason why state or local officers of the nonlegislative character involved here may not be chosen by the governor, by the legislature, or by some other appointive means rather than by an election.”
10 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.