Gibson v. Rich’s Empirical Analysis
44 F.3d 274 · 1995
Citation profile
13 federal appellate · 1 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 64 later decisions — most recently March 2018 · most notably Hegarty v. Somerset County (1995), Glenn v. City of Tyler (2001)
13 federal appellate · 1 district · 3 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 28 U.S.C. § 1291
Relies on Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Anderson v. Creighton · Mitchell v. Forsyth · Malley v. Briggs · Hunter v. Bryant
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 64 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“reasonable competence could disagree [on whether the conduct is legal], immunity should be recognized.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Qualified immunity shields government officials performing discretionary functions from liability unless their conduct violates clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known. Babb v. Dorman, 33 F.3d 472, 477 (5th Cir.1994). The protection afforded by the defense is an “immunity from suit, not simply immunity from liability.” Id. (quoting Geter v. Fortenberry, 849 F.2d 1550, 1552 (5th Cir.1988)). Consequently, the immunity issue must be resolved at the earliest possible stage of the litigation since it entails an entitlement to immunity from suit and not merely a defense to liability. See Hunter v. Bryant, 502 U.S. 224, 226 , 112 S.Ct. 534, 536 , 116 L.Ed.2d 589 (1991). In suits alleging illegal arrest, the qualified immunity determination turns on whether a reasonable officer could have believed the arrest to be lawful, in light of clearly established law and the information the officer possessed. Babb, 33 F.3d at 477 . Even law enforcement officials who reasonably, but mistakenly, conclude that probable cause is present are entitled to immunity. Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 641 , 107 S.Ct. 3034, 3039 , 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987); Babb, 33 F.3d at 477 . The qualified immunity defense “‘gives ample room for mistaken judgments’ by protecting ‘all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law.’ ” Hunter v. Bryant, 502 U.S. 224, 228 , 112 S.Ct. 534, 537 , 116 L.Ed.2d 589 (1991) (quoting Malley v. Brigg”
1 later decision 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.