Paul v. Davis’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
3,043 federal appellate · 1,307 district · 1,174 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 9,456 later decisions (100 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2025 · most notably Bell v. Wolfish (1979), Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill (1985)
3,043 federal appellate · 1,307 district · 1,174 state decisions — followed in 47 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
reviewedDavis v. Paul (from Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1343 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Terry v. Ohio · Conley v. Gibson · Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. · Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · Katz v. United States
Cited together with Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · Bishop v. Wood · Perry v. Sindermann · Parratt v. Taylor · Wisconsin v. Constantineau
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 9,456 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a font of tort law to be superimposed upon whatever systems may already be administered by the States.”
164 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a right or status previously recognized by state law.”
126 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“matters relating to marriage, procreation, contraception, family relationships, and child rearing and education.”
70 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.