Williams v. Allen’s Empirical Analysis
439 F.2d 1398 · 1971
Citation profile
11 federal appellate ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 21 later decisions — most recently July 2012
11 federal appellate ·
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
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 241 (Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996) · 28 U.S.C. § 1343 · 28 U.S.C. § 3 · 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Civil Rights Act of 1866) · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Poller v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. · United States v. Classic · United States v. Cruikshank · Logan v. United States · White Motor Company v. United States
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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It is the duty and the right, not only of every peace officer of the United States, but of every citizen to assist in prosecuting and in securing the punishment of, any breach of the peace of the United States. It is the right, as well as the duty, of every citizen, when called upon by the proper officer, to act as part of the posse comitatus in upholding the laws of his country. It is likewise his right and his duty to communicate to the executive officers any information which he has of the commission of an offense against those laws; and such information, given by a private citizen, is a privilege and confidential communication, for which no action of libel or slander will lie, and the disclosure of which cannot be compelled without thee assent of the government. The right of a citizen informing of a violation of law ... does not depend upon any of the amendments to the constitution, but arises out of the creation and establishment by the constitution itself of a national government, paramount and supreme within its sphere of action.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Williams contends the “trial” before the Police Committee was prompted by the exercise of his informer’s right and the other charges against him, although factually supportable, were superficial and would never have been brought but for his act of informing the Internal Revenue Service concerning the alleged lottery payoffs to the Chief of Police. The issue is thus not whether other valid reasons for removal existed, but whether the valid reasons were actually employed by the Police Committee to effect Williams’ severance from the department. The order granting summary judgment deprived Williams of the opportunity to attempt to establish that the sole actual motive behind his dismissal was an illegal one and that the other legitimate charges of misconduct actually played no part in his discharge from employment. (Footnote omitted)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.