Quern v. Jordan’s Empirical Analysis
1979
Citation profile
1,102 federal appellate · 853 district · 285 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,904 later decisions (58 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2026 · most notably Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman (1984), Kentucky v. Graham (1985)
1,102 federal appellate · 853 district · 285 state decisions — followed in 32 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
reviewedthe decision below (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Scheuer v. Rhodes · Ex Parte: Edward T Young · Edelman v. Jordan · Monroe v. Pape
Cited together with Edelman v. Jordan · Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman · Ex Parte: Edward T Young · Hans v. State of Louisiana · Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer
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 4,904 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a federal court, consistent with the Eleventh Amendment, may enjoin state officials to conform their future conduct to the requirements of federal law.”
102 later decisions quote this exact passage“Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.”
18 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The doctrine of law of the case comes into play only with respect to issues previously determined.”
11 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.