McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green’s Empirical Analysis
1973
Citation profile
15,764 federal appellate · 10,793 district · 5,172 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 66,735 later decisions (202 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly (2007), Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine (1981)
15,764 federal appellate · 10,793 district · 5,172 state decisions — followed in 50 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
reviewedPercy H. GREEN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. McDONNELL DOUGLAS CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 2000E (§ 701 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964)
Relies on Griggs v. Duke Power Co. · National Labor Relations Board v. Fansteel Metallurgical Corp. · Robinson v. Lorillard Corp. · Garner v. Board of Public Works
Cited together with Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine · Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks · International Brotherhood of Teamsters 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 66,735 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“to articulate some legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for the employee's rejection.”
1,607 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he burden of establishing a prima facie case of disparate treatment is not onerous.”
39 later decisions quote this exact passage“may not be in and of themselves controlling as to an individualized hiring decision, particularly in the presence of an otherwise justifiable reason for refusing to rehire.”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
How later courts have treated this case
Across 153 classified citations — whether each later court relied on, limited, or rejected this decision:
- 62cited without characterization
- 46followed
- 42explained
- 3distinguished
Treatment is classified from each citing court's own sentence. This is a running sample — coverage grows as the classification pass proceeds; overrulings are also tracked authoritatively in the case status.