Branti v. Finkel’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
1,715 federal appellate · 672 district · 278 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,342 later decisions (51 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably Connick v. Myers (1983), Polk County v. Dodson (1981)
1,715 federal appellate · 672 district · 278 state decisions — followed in 31 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 Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle · Perry v. Sindermann · Buckley v. Valeo · Elrod v. Burns · Imbler v. Pachtman
Cited together with Elrod v. Burns · Pickering v. Board of Education of Township High School District 205 Will County Illinois · Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois · Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle · Harlow v. Fitzgerald
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 4,342 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“party affiliation is an appropriate requirement for the effective performance of the public office involved.”
217 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the First Amendment forbids government officials to discharge or threaten to discharge public employees solely for not being supporters of the political party in power, unless party affiliation is an appropriate requirement for the position involved.”
42 later decisions quote this exact passage“nonpolicymaking, nonconfidential government employee”
27 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Sweeney v. Bond · Vintson v. Anton
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.