Furnco Construction Corp. v. Waters’s Empirical Analysis
1978
Citation profile
1,948 federal appellate · 708 district · 449 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 5,351 later decisions (75 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine (1981), St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks (1993)
1,948 federal appellate · 708 district · 449 state decisions — followed in 41 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
reviewedWilliam WATERS Et Al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. FURNCO CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellee (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 2000E (§ 701 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964)
Relies on McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green · International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States · Griggs v. Duke Power Co. · Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody
Cited together with McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green · Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine · International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States · United States Postal Service Board of Governors v. Aikens · Griggs v. Duke Power Co.
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 5,351 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“raises an inference of discrimination only because we presume these acts, if otherwise unexplained, are more likely than not based on the consideration of impermissible factors.”
283 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(i) that he belongs to a racial minority; (ii) that he applied and was qualified for a job for which the employer was seeking applicants; (iii) that, despite his qualifications, he was rejected; and (iv) that, after his rejection, the position remained open and the employer continued to seek applicants from persons of complainant's qualifications.”
69 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“actions taken by the employer from which one can infer, if such actions remain unexplained, that it is more likely than not that such actions were 'based on a discriminatory criterion illegal under the Act.'”
52 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.