Jones v. Wolf’s Empirical Analysis
1979
Citation profile
117 federal appellate · 60 district · 903 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,199 later decisions (13 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2025 · most notably Employment Division Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. L Smith (1990), Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock (1989)
117 federal appellate · 60 district · 903 state decisions — followed in 44 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.
Relationships
Relies on Erie Co v. Tompkins · Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese for United States and Canada v. Milivojevich · Atlas Roofing Co. v. Occupational Safety & Health Review Commission · Presbyterian Church in US v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull Memorial Presbyterian Church · Watson v. Jones
Cited together with Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese for United States and Canada v. Milivojevich · Presbyterian Church in US v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull Memorial Presbyterian Church · Kedroff v. Saint Nicholas Cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church in North America · Watson v. Jones · Maryland and Virginia Eldership of Churches of God v. Church of God at Sharpsburg Inc
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 1,199 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a searching and therefore impermissible inquiry into church polity.”
101 later decisions quote this exact passage“In short, the First and Fourteenth Amendments permit hierarchical religious organizations to establish their own rules and regulations for internal discipline and government, and to create tribunals for adjudicating disputes over these matters. When this choice is exercised and ecclesiastical tribunals are created to decide disputes over the government and direction of subordinate bodies, the Constitution requires that civil courts accept their decisions as binding upon them.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“All property held by or for a particular church ... whether legal title is lodged in a corporation, a trustee or trustees, or an unincorporated association, and whether the property is used in programs of a particular church or of a more inclusive governing body or retained for the production of income, is held in trust nevertheless for the use and benefit of the [PCUSA],”
3 later decisions 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.