Bounds v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
1,952 federal appellate · 575 district · 1,029 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 6,113 later decisions (38 by the Supreme Court) — most recently November 2025 · most notably Bell v. Wolfish (1979), Bonner v. City of Prichard (1981)
1,952 federal appellate · 575 district · 1,029 state decisions — followed in 48 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
reviewedSmith v. Bounds (from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1915 · 28 U.S.C. § 2255 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) · 28 U.S.C. § 753 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 2996
Relies on Schneckloth v. Bustamonte · Estelle v. Gamble · Haines v. Kerner · Gideon v. Wainwright · Wolff v. McDonnell
Cited together with Wolff v. McDonnell · Johnson v. Avery · Procunier v. Martinez · Bell v. Wolfish · Lewis Director Arizona Department of Corrections v. Casey
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 6,113 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the fundamental constitutional right of access to the courts requires prison authorities to assist inmates in the preparation and filing of meaningful legal papers by providing prisoners with adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law.”
109 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“a reasonably adequate opportunity to present claimed violations of fundamental constitutional rights to the courts.”
92 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law.”
83 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.