Steffel v. Thompson’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
1,613 federal appellate · 721 district · 311 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,978 later decisions (184 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Jackson v. Virginia (1979), Murray v. Carrier (1986)
1,613 federal appellate · 721 district · 311 state decisions — followed in 36 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 Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 28 (Sherman Antitrust Act) · 28 U.S.C. § 1331 · 28 U.S.C. § 1341 · 28 U.S.C. § 1342 · 28 U.S.C. § 1343 · 28 U.S.C. § 1651 · 28 U.S.C. § 2201 · 28 U.S.C. § 2202
Relies on Younger v. Harris · Ex Parte: Edward T Young · Monroe v. Pape · Roe v. Wade · Aetna Life Ins Co of Hartford Conn v. Haworth
Cited together with Younger v. Harris · Babbitt v. United Farm Workers National Union · Huffman v. Pursue, Ltd. · Samuels v. J Mackell Fernandez · Railroad Commission v. Pullman Co.
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 4,978 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“it is not necessary that [the plaintiff] first expose himself to actual arrest or prosecution to be entitled to challenge [the] statute that he claims deters the exercise of his constitutional rights.”
50 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“When no state criminal proceeding is pending at the time the federal complaint is filed, federal intervention does not result in duplicative legal proceedings or disruption of the state criminal justice system; nor can federal intervention, in that circumstance, be interpreted as reflecting negatively upon the state court's ability to enforce constitutional principles.”
42 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“an actual controversy must be extant at all stages of review, not merely at the time the complaint is filed.”
28 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.