Abood v. Detroit Board of Education’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
619 federal appellate · 210 district · 433 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,197 later decisions (110 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2025 · most notably Perry Education Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n (1983), Members of the City Council of Los Angeles v. Taxpayers for Vincent (1984)
619 federal appellate · 210 district · 433 state decisions — followed in 30 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. A case is still cited after being overruled — to note the reversal, distinguish it, or in dissent. 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 New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Pickering v. Board of Education of Township High School District 205 Will County Illinois · Perry v. Sindermann · Buckley v. Valeo · Vaca v. Sipes
Cited together with Chicago Teachers Union, Local No. 1 v. Hudson · International Ass'n of MacHinists v. Street · Ellis v. Brotherhood of Railway, Airline & Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express & Station Employes · Brotherhood of Railway & Steamship Clerks, Freight Handlers, Express & Station Employes v. Allen · Buckley v. Valeo
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 2,197 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“because public employee unions attempt to influence government policymaking, their activities and the views of members who disagree with them may properly be termed political”
113 later decisions quote this exact passage“'to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical.'”
80 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”
75 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.