Laird v. Tatum’s Empirical Analysis
1972
Citation profile
220 federal appellate · 29 district · 172 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 625 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2025 · most notably Republican Party of Minnesota v. White (2002), United States v. Haldeman (1976)
220 federal appellate · 29 district · 172 state decisions — followed in 26 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. § 453 · 28 U.S.C. § 455 · 29 U.S.C. § 101 (Norris-LaGuardia Act)
Relies on Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District · Branzburg v. Hayes · United States v. United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan · United States v. Darby · New York Times Company v. United States
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 625 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Proof that a Justice's mind at the time he joined the Court was a complete tabula rasa in the area of constitutional adjudication would be evidence of lack of qualification, not lack of bias.”
16 later decisions quote this exact passage“[A] . . . judge has a duty to sit where not disqualified which is equally strong as the duty to not sit where disqualified.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage““(a) Any . . . judge ... of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned. (b) He shall also disqualify himself in the following circumstances: (1) Where he has a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding; * * * * * * (5) He . . . (iv) is to the judge’s knowledge likely to be a material witness in the proceeding.””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.