Saxbe v. Washington Post Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
202 federal appellate · 30 district · 237 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 716 later decisions (59 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2018 · most notably Connick v. Myers (1983), Hudson v. Palmer (1984)
202 federal appellate · 30 district · 237 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 Washington Post Company v. Richard G. Kleindienst, Acting Attorney General of the United States (from District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on United States v. O'Brien · Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District · Procunier v. Martinez · Branzburg v. Hayes · Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. Federal Communications Commission
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 716 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“No aspect of that constitutional guarantee is more rightly treasured than its protection of the ability of our people through free and open debate to consider and resolve their own destiny.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“without some protection for seeking out the news, freedom of the press could be eviscerated.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[i]n seeking out the news the press . . . acts as an agent of the public at large,”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.