Bellotti v. Baird’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
363 federal appellate · 197 district · 49 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,113 later decisions (73 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2022 · most notably Singleton v. Wulff (1976), Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. P Casey P Casey (1992)
363 federal appellate · 197 district · 49 state decisions — followed in 16 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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1343 · 28 U.S.C. § 2281 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States · Roe v. Wade · Gault · Railroad Commission v. Pullman Co. · Wisconsin v. Constantineau
Cited together with Railroad Commission v. Pullman Co. · Colorado River Water Conservation District v. United States · Planned Parenthood of Central Missouri v. Danforth · Roe v. Wade · Younger v. Harris
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 1,113 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“abstention is appropriate where [deferral to the state courts] '... might avoid in whole or in part the necessity for federal constitutional adjudication, or at least materially change the nature of the problem.'”
32 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[Use of state certification procedures] does, of course, in the long run save time, energy, and resources and helps build a cooperative judicial federalism. Its use in a given case rests in the sound discretion of the federal court.”
16 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[e]ach day the statute is in effect, irretrievable events, with substantial personal consequences, occur,”
7 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.