O'BRIEN v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis
1972
Citation profile
75 federal appellate · 33 district · 47 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 249 later decisions (22 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2016 · most notably Buckley v. Valeo (1976), Cousins v. Wigoda (1975)
75 federal appellate · 33 district · 47 state decisions — followed in 12 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 District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 1985
Relies on Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics · Baker v. Carr · Monroe v. Pape · Griffin v. Breckenridge · Powell v. McCormack
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 249 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Judicial intervention in this area traditionally has been approached with great caution and restraint.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"While the Court is unwilling to undertake final resolution of the important constitutional questions presented without full briefing and argument and adequate opportunity for deliberation, we entertain grave doubts as to the action taken by the Court of Appeals." Id. at ___, 92 S.Ct. at 2720 .”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“in which claims are made that injury arises from invidious discrimination based on race in a primary contest within a single State. Cf. Terry v. Adams, 345 U.S. 461 , 73 S.Ct. 809, 97 L.Ed. 1152 (1953); Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649 , 64 S.Ct. 757, 88 L.Ed. 987 (1944),”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.