Cruz v. Beto’s Empirical Analysis
1972
Citation profile
928 federal appellate · 449 district · 162 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,780 later decisions (70 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2024 · most notably Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly (2007), Estelle v. Gamble (1976)
928 federal appellate · 449 district · 162 state decisions — followed in 22 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedCruz v. Beto (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1915 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Conley v. Gibson · Haines v. Kerner · Dandridge v. Williams · McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher
Cited together with Conley v. Gibson · Haines v. Kerner · Procunier v. Martinez · Wolff v. McDonnell · Pell v. Procunier
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 3,780 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“reasonable opportunities must be afforded to all prisoners to exercise the religious freedom guaranteed by the First and Fourteenth Amendments without fear of penalty.”
32 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a reasonable opportunity of pursuing his faith comparable to the opportunity afforded fellow prisoners who adhere to conventional religious precepts.”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Jackson v. Gomez · Wilson v. Gunter“(P)ersons in prison, like other individuals, have the right to petition the Government for redress of grievances which, of course, includes 'access of prisoners to the courts for the purpose of presenting their complaints.'”
17 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.