Preiser v. Newkirk’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
705 federal appellate · 306 district · 27 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,020 later decisions (61 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Friends of the Earth Incorporateds v. Laidlaw Environmental Services Inc (2000), Spencer v. Kemna (1998)
705 federal appellate · 306 district · 27 state decisions
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
reviewedNewkirk v. Butler (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Roe v. Wade · Aetna Life Ins Co of Hartford Conn v. Haworth · United States v. W. T. Grant Co. · Steffel v. Thompson · United States v. Munsingwear, Inc.
Cited together with North Carolina v. Rice · Aetna Life Ins Co of Hartford Conn v. Haworth · United States v. Munsingwear, Inc. · United States v. W. T. Grant Co. · Weinstein v. Bradford
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 2,020 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a real and substantial controversy admitting of specific relief through a decree of a conclusive character, as distinguished from an opinion advising what the law would be upon a hypothetical state of facts.”
53 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[A]n actual controversy must be extant at all stages of review, not merely at the time the complaint is filed.”
38 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“there is a substantial controversy ... of sufficient immediacy and reality to warrant the issuance of a declaratory judgment.”
19 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.