Cohen v. California’s Empirical Analysis
1971
Citation profile
875 federal appellate · 178 district · 1,066 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,080 later decisions (211 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Connick v. Myers (1983), Buckley v. Valeo (1976)
875 federal appellate · 178 district · 1,066 state decisions — followed in 49 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 States v. O'Brien · Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Roth v. United States · Chaplinsky v. State of New Hampshire
Cited together with Chaplinsky v. State of New Hampshire · Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District · New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Gooding v. Wilson · Terminiello v. Chicago
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 3,080 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“personally abusive epithets which, when addressed to the ordinary citizen, are, as a matter of common knowledge, inherently likely to provoke violent reaction.”
187 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he only 'conduct' which the State sought to punish ... [was] the fact of communication.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Maria-Kelley F. Yniguez Jaime P. Gutierrez, and Arizonans Against Constitutional Tampering, Intervenors-Plaintiffs-Appellees, and State of Arizona Rose Mofford Robert Corbin v. Arizonans for Official English Robert D. Parks, Intervenors-Defendants-Appellants. Maria-Kelley F. Yniguez v. State of Arizona Rose Mofford Robert Corbin, and Arizonans for Official English Robert D. Parks, Intervenors-Defendants-Appellants. Maria-Kelley F. Yniguez v. State of Arizona Rose Mofford Robert Corbin · Maria-Kelley F. Yniguez Jaime P. Gutierrez, and Arizonans Against Constitutional Tampering, Intervenors-Plaintiffs-Appellees, and State of Arizona Rose Mofford Robert Corbin v. Arizonans for Official English Robert D. Parks, Intervenors-Defendants-Appellants. Maria-Kelley F. Yniguez v. State of Arizona Rose Mofford Robert Corbin, and Arizonans for Official English Robert D. Parks, Intervenors-Defendants-Appellants. Maria-Kelley F. Yniguez v. State of Arizona Rose Mofford Robert Corbin“wearing a jacket bearing the words `Fuck the Draft'”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.