National Labor Relations Board v. Robbins Tire & Rubber Co.’s Empirical Analysis
1978
Citation profile
604 federal appellate · 683 district · 149 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,130 later decisions (37 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably United States Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (1989), Chrysler Corporation v. Brown (1979)
604 federal appellate · 683 district · 149 state decisions — followed in 26 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
reviewedRobbins Tire & Rubber Co. v. National Labor Relations Board (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 1505 · 18 U.S.C. § 3500 · 29 U.S.C. § 156 (§ 6 of the National Labor Relations Act) · 29 U.S.C. § 158 (§ 8 of the National Labor Relations Act) · 29 U.S.C. § 160 (§ 10 of the National Labor Relations Act) · 5 U.S.C. § 552 (Freedom of Information Act)
Relies on Hickman v. Taylor · Ohio Bureau of Employment Services v. Hodory · National Labor Relations Board v. Sears, Roebuck & Co. · National Labor Relations Board v. Gissel Packing Co. · Department of the Air Force v. Rose
Cited together with Department of the Air Force v. Rose · United States Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press · National Labor Relations Board v. Sears, Roebuck & Co. · Environmental Protection Agency v. Mink · Federal Bureau of Investigation v. Abramson
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 2,130 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The basic purpose of FOIA is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.”
57 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information ... could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings.”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage“Congress recognized that law enforcement agencies had legitimate needs to keep certain records confidential, lest the agencies be hindered in their investigations.”
20 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.