Hanrahan v. Hampton’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
937 federal appellate · 245 district · 111 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,318 later decisions (31 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2025 · most notably Harlow v. Fitzgerald (1982), Hensley v. Eckerhart (1983)
937 federal appellate · 245 district · 111 state decisions — followed in 23 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
reviewedHampton v. Hanrahan (from Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1973 (§ 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965) · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 1988 · 42 U.S.C. § 2000A
Relies on Butz v. Economou · Christiansburg Garment Co. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission · Bradley v. School Board of City of Richmond · Mills v. Electric Auto-Lite Co.
Cited together with Hensley v. Eckerhart · Texas State Teachers Ass'n v. Garland Independent School District · Hewitt v. Helms · Maher v. Gagne · Hampton v. Hanrahan
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 2,318 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Congress intended to permit the interim award of counsel fees only when a party has prevailed on the merits of at least some of his claims.”
31 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“has established his entitlement to some relief on the merits of his claims, either in the trial court or on appeal.”
23 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party, other than the United States, a reasonable attorney's fee as part of the costs”
14 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.