Mathews v. Diaz’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
858 federal appellate · 258 district · 153 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,376 later decisions (79 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center (1985), Plyler v. Doe (1982)
858 federal appellate · 258 district · 153 state decisions — followed in 24 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.
Relationships
Relies on Mathews v. Eldridge · Baker v. Carr · Dandridge v. Williams · Shapiro v. Thompson · Weinberger v. Salfi
Cited together with Fiallo Ex Rel. Rodriguez v. Bell · Mathews v. Eldridge · Shaughnessy v. United States Ex Rel. Mezei · Plyler v. Doe · Graham v. Richardson
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 2,376 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[I]n the exercise of its broad power over immigration and naturalization, 'Congress regularly makes rules that would be unacceptable if applied to citizens.'”
114 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“There are literally millions of aliens within the jurisdiction of the United States. The Fifth Amendment, as well as the Fourteenth Amendment, protects every one of these persons from deprivation of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“any policy toward aliens is vitally and intricately interwoven with contemporaneous policies in regard to the conduct of foreign relations, the war power, and the maintenance of a republican form of government. Such matters are so exclusively entrusted to the political branches of government as to be largely immune from judicial inquiry or interference.”
14 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.