Ingraham v. Wright’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
1,378 federal appellate · 525 district · 650 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,850 later decisions (162 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Graham v. Connor (1989), Bell v. Wolfish (1979)
1,378 federal appellate · 525 district · 650 state decisions — followed in 46 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
reviewedIngraham v. Wright (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Terry v. Ohio · Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · Mathews v. Eldridge · Estelle v. Gamble · Morrissey v. Brewer
Cited together with Bell v. Wolfish · Estelle v. Gamble · Parratt v. Taylor · Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Harlow v. Fitzgerald
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 4,850 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[t]here is, of course, a de minimis level of imposition with which the Constitution is not concerned.”
76 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“[T]he State does not acquire the power to punish with which the Eighth Amendment is concerned until after it has secured a formal adjudication of guilt in accordance with due process of law. Where the State seeks to impose punishment without such an adjudication, the pertinent constitutional guarantee is the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”
62 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
33 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.