Whalen v. Roe’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
781 federal appellate · 344 district · 851 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,238 later decisions (94 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2026 · most notably Ingraham v. Wright (1977), New York v. Ferber (1982)
781 federal appellate · 344 district · 851 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.
Relationships
Relies on Terry v. Ohio · Katz v. United States · Buckley v. Valeo · Roe v. Wade · Paul v. Davis
Cited together with Roe v. Wade · Griswold v. State of Connecticut · Paul v. Davis · Nixon v. Administrator of General Services · Carey v. Population Services International
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 3,238 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“One is the individual interest in avoiding disclosure of personal matters, and another is the interest in independence in making certain kinds of important decisions.”
114 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The cases sometimes characterized as protecting “privacy” have in fact involved at least two different kinds of interests. One is the individual interest in avoiding disclosure of personal matters, and another is the interest in independence in making certain kinds of important decisions.”
31 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“disclosures of private medical information to doctors, to hospital personnel, to insurance companies, and to public health agencies are often an essential part of modern medical practice even when the disclosure may reflect unfavorably on the character of the patient,”
30 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.