Mathews v. Eldridge’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
6,006 federal appellate · 2,730 district · 8,737 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 26,595 later decisions (340 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Santosky v. Kramer (1982), Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill (1985)
6,006 federal appellate · 2,730 district · 8,737 state decisions — followed in 49 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
reviewedDollar General Corp. v. National Labor Relations Board (from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 3101 (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) · 28 U.S.C. § 1257 · 28 U.S.C. § 1291 · 28 U.S.C. § 1361 · 29 U.S.C. § 701 (Employment Opportunities for Individuals With Disabilities Act) · 42 U.S.C. § 1383 (§ 1631 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 42 U.S.C. § 401 (§ 201 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 42 U.S.C. § 404 (§ 204 of the Social Security Act of 1935)
Relies on Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp. · Richardson v. Perales · Morrissey v. Brewer
Cited together with Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · Goldberg v. Kelly · Morrissey v. Brewer · Weinberger v. Salfi · Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill
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 26,595 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“First, the private interest that will be affected by the official action; second, the risk of an erroneous deprivation of such interest through the procedures used, and the probable value, if any, of additional or substitute procedural safeguards; and finally, the Government’s interest, including the function involved and the fiscal and administrative burdens that the additional or substitute procedural requirement would entail.”
2,096 later decisions quote this exact passage“due process is flexible and calls for such procedural protections as the particular situation demands.”
169 later decisions quote this exact passage“the nature of the claim being asserted and the consequences of deferment of judicial review.”
27 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
How later courts have treated this case
Across 89 classified citations — whether each later court relied on, limited, or rejected this decision:
- 64followed
- 13cited without characterization
- 12explained
Treatment is classified from each citing court's own sentence. This is a running sample — coverage grows as the classification pass proceeds; overrulings are also tracked authoritatively in the case status.