O'Connor v. Donaldson’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
579 federal appellate · 231 district · 966 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,419 later decisions (84 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Illinois v. Gates (1983), Anderson v. Creighton (1987)
579 federal appellate · 231 district · 966 state decisions — followed in 45 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
reviewedKenneth Donaldson v. J. B. O'connor, M.D. And John Gumanis, M.D. (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Scheuer v. Rhodes · Morrissey v. Brewer · Gault · Wood v. Strickland · United States v. Munsingwear, Inc.
Cited together with Addington v. Texas · Wood v. Strickland · Jackson v. Indiana · Scheuer v. Rhodes · Humphrey v. Cady
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 2,419 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A finding of “mental illness” alone cannot justify a State’s locking a person up against his will and keeping him indefinitely in simple custodial confinement. Assuming that that term can be given a reasonably precise content and that the “mentally ill” can be identified with reasonable accuracy, there is still no constitutional basis for confining such persons involuntarily if they are dangerous to no one and can live safely in freedom.”
81 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“is a deprivation of liberty which the State cannot accomplish without due process of law.”
37 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrencee.g. Parham v. J. R. · C.R. v. Adams“a constitutionally adequate purpose for the confinement.”
26 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Parham v. J. R. · Vitek v. Jones
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.