Burns v. Alcala’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
123 federal appellate · 36 district · 64 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 384 later decisions (17 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2022 · most notably Perrin v. United States (1979), Chapman v. Houston Welfare Rights Organization (1979)
123 federal appellate · 36 district · 64 state decisions — followed in 17 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
reviewedAlcala v. Burns (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Hagans v. Lavine · Phelps Dodge Corporation v. National Labor Relations Board · King v. Smith · New York State Department of Social Services v. Dublino · Townsend v. Swank
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 384 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“must be given their ordinary meaning in the absence of persuasive reasons to the contrary.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“to help maintain and strengthen family life.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“a needy child (1) who has been deprived of parental support or care by reason of the death, continued absence from the home ... or physical or mental incapacity of a parent, and who is living with his father, mother, ... in a place of residence maintained by one or more of such relatives as his or their own home, and (2) who is (A) under the age of eighteen”
3 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.