Mitchum v. Foster’s Empirical Analysis
1972
Citation profile
622 federal appellate · 232 district · 46 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,823 later decisions (115 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Jackson v. Virginia (1979), Coleman v. Thompson (1991)
622 federal appellate · 232 district · 46 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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1253 · 28 U.S.C. § 1331 · 28 U.S.C. § 1343 · 28 U.S.C. § 1441 · 28 U.S.C. § 1446 · 28 U.S.C. § 2251 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) · 28 U.S.C. § 2281 · 28 U.S.C. § 2283
Relies on Younger v. Harris · Ex Parte: Edward T Young · Monroe v. Pape · Dombrowski v. Pfister · Shelley v. Kraemer
Cited together with Younger v. Harris · Mitchum v. Foster · Atlantic Coast Line Railroad v. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers · Monroe v. Pape · Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd.
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 1,823 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'a uniquely federal remedy against incursions under the claimed authority of state law upon rights secured by the Constitution and laws of the Nation.'”
91 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“A court of the United States may not grant an injunction to stay proceedings in a State court except as expressly authorized by Act of Congress, or where necessary in aid of its jurisdiction, or to protect or effectuate its judgments.”
38 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“whether an Act of Congress, clearly creating a federal right or remedy enforceable in a federal court of equity, could be given its intended scope only by the stay of a state court proceeding.”
31 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.