Meek v. Pittenger’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
204 federal appellate · 69 district · 136 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 754 later decisions (65 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2022 · most notably Hunt v. Washington State Apple Advertising Commission (1977), Agostini v. Felton Chancellor Board of Education of the City of New York (1997)
204 federal appellate · 69 district · 136 state decisions — followed in 28 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. A case is still cited after being overruled — to note the reversal, distinguish it, or in dissent. 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. § 1253 · 28 U.S.C. § 2281
Relies on Edelman v. Jordan · Flast v. Cohen · Sierra Club v. Morton · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Lemon v. Kurtzman
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 754 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[C]omprehensive, discriminating, and continuing state surveillance will inevitably be required to ensure that ... the First Amendment [is] respected.”
72 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The appellants do not challenge, and we do not question, the authority of the Pennsylvania General Assembly to make free auxiliary services available to all students in the Commonwealth, including those who attend church-related schools.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“to fall within that class of general welfare services for children that may be provided by the State regardless of the incidental benefit that accrues to church-related schools.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Wolman v. Walter · Wolman v. Essex
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.