Trimble v. Gordon’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
142 federal appellate · 54 district · 817 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,305 later decisions (75 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center (1985), Plyler v. Doe (1982)
142 federal appellate · 54 district · 817 state decisions — followed in 43 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 Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Development Corp. · McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher · Yick Wo v. Hopkins · Reed v. Reed · Graham v. Richardson
Cited together with Lalli v. Lalli · Weber v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. · Mathews v. Lucas · Craig v. Boren · San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez
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 1,305 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“carefully tuned to alternative considerations.”
49 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Plyler v. Doe · Bowen v. Gilliard“might justify more demanding standards for illegitimates claiming under their father's estates from that required either for illegitimate children claiming under their mother's estates or for legitimate children generally.”
19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“. . . Hard questions cannot be avoided by a hypothetical reshuffling of the facts . . . ." 430 U.S. at 773-774 , 97 S.Ct. at 1467 , 52 L.Ed.2d at 41-42 . See also Labine v. Vincent, 401 U.S. at 551 , 91 S.Ct. at 1027 , 28 L.Ed.2d at 300, n. 17 (Brennan, J., dissenting).”
9 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.