Gomez v. Toledo’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
870 federal appellate · 770 district · 428 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,990 later decisions (17 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2025 · most notably Harlow v. Fitzgerald (1982), Anderson v. Creighton (1987)
870 federal appellate · 770 district · 428 state decisions — followed in 40 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
reviewedGomez v. Toledo (from First Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · Scheuer v. Rhodes · Monroe v. Pape · Imbler v. Pachtman · Ohio Bureau of Employment Services v. Hodory
Cited together with Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Anderson v. Creighton · Conley v. Gibson · Scheuer v. Rhodes
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 3,990 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“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.”
67 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“By the plain terms of § 1983, two — and only two — allegations are required in order to state a cause of action under that statute. First, the plaintiff must allege that some person has deprived him of a federal right. Second, he must allege that the person who has deprived him of that right acted under color of state or territorial law.”
32 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[s]ince qualified immunity is a defense, the burden of pleading it rests with the defendant.”
25 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.