Gordon v. Lance’s Empirical Analysis
1971
Citation profile
60 federal appellate · 30 district · 111 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 282 later decisions (19 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2025 · most notably San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973), Romer Governor of Colorado v. Evans (1996)
60 federal appellate · 30 district · 111 state decisions — followed in 17 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 Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections Butts · Gomillion v. Lightfoot · Kramer v. Union Free School District No. 15 · Gray v. Sanders · Carrington v. Rash
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 282 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The class singled out in Hunter was clear — `those who would benefit from laws barring racial, religious, or ancestral discriminations'”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“discern no independently identifiable group or category that favors bonded indebtedness over other forms of financing.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Although West Virginia has not denied any group access to the ballot, it has indeed made it more difficult for some kinds of governmental actions to be taken. Certainly any departure from strict majority rule gives disproportionate power to the minority. But there is nothing in the language of the Constitution, our history, or our cases that requires that a majority always prevail on every issue. On the contrary, while we have recognized that state officials are normally chosen by a vote of the majority of the electorate, we have found no constitutional barrier to the selection of a Governor by a state legislature, after no candidate received a majority of the popular vote. Fortson v. Morris, 385 U.S. 231 , 87 S.Ct. 446 , 17 L.Ed.2d 330 (1966).”
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.