Gravel v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1972
Citation profile
521 federal appellate · 252 district · 191 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,477 later decisions (71 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Harlow v. Fitzgerald (1982), Scheuer v. Rhodes (1974)
521 federal appellate · 252 district · 191 state decisions — followed in 27 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
reviewedthe decision below (from First Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Roviaro v. United States · Powell v. McCormack · Alderman v. United States · Costello v. United States
Cited together with Tenney v. Brandhove · United States v. Brewster · Eastland v. United States Servicemen's Fund · United States v. Johnson · Doe v. McMillan
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 1,477 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“an integral part of the deliberative and communicative processes by which Members participate in committee and House proceedings with respect to the consideration and passage or rejection of proposed legislation or with respect to other matters which the Constitution places within the jurisdiction of either House.”
79 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'central role' ... is to 'prevent intimidation of legislators by the Executive and accountability before a possibly hostile judiciary.'”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(F)or any Speech or Debate in either House (senators and representatives) shall not be questioned in any other Place.”
20 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.