Police Department of Chicago v. Mosley’s Empirical Analysis
1972
Citation profile
1,084 federal appellate · 431 district · 671 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,501 later decisions (214 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2025 · most notably San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez (1973), Perry Education Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n (1983)
1,084 federal appellate · 431 district · 671 state decisions — followed in 44 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
reviewedMosley v. Police Department (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2201 · 29 U.S.C. § 152 (§ 2 of the National Labor Relations Act) · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Grayned v. City of Rockford · United States v. O'Brien · Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut
Cited together with Carey v. Brown · Buckley v. Valeo · Perry Education Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n · United States v. O'Brien · Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District
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 3,501 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A]bove all else, the First Amendment means that government has no power to restrict expression because of its message, its ideas, its subject matter, or its content.”
86 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“government may not grant the use of a forum to people whose views it finds acceptable, but deny use to those wishing to express less favored or more controversial views.”
84 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The crucial question is whether there is an appropriate government interest suitably furthered by the differential treatment.”
26 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.