Walton ex rel. Walton v. Alexander’s Empirical Analysis
44 F.3d 1297 · 1995
Citation profile
62 federal appellate · 8 district · 8 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 126 later decisions — most recently March 2023 · most notably Piotrowski v. City of Houston (2001), Hare v. City of Corinth, Miss. (1994)
62 federal appellate · 8 district · 8 state decisions
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 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Estelle v. Gamble · Mitchell v. Forsyth · Daniels v. Williams
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 126 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Walton’s willful relinquishment of a small fraction of liberty simply is not comparable to that measure of almost total deprivation experienced by a prisoner or involuntarily committed mental patient. Nor do the facts establish that the state, through its affirmative acts, held Walton at the School involuntarily and against Ms will. To the contrary, the record shows that Walton attended this school voluntarily with the option of leaving at will, an option that was never withdrawn.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"... we hold that a 'special relationship' arises between a person and the state only when this person is involuntarily confined against his will through the affirmative exercise of state power. Absent this 'special relationship,’ the state has no duty to protect nor liability from failing to protect a person under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment from violence at the hands of a private actor.” (emphasis added)”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“this 'special relationship' only arises when a person is involuntarily confined or otherwise restrained against his will pursuant to a governmental order or by the affirmative exercise of state power.”
4 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.