Hughes v. Rowe’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
924 federal appellate · 509 district · 224 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,629 later decisions (36 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly (2007), Hudson v. Palmer (1984)
924 federal appellate · 509 district · 224 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 Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 1988
Relies on Conley v. Gibson · Estelle v. Gamble · Morrissey v. Brewer · Haines v. Kerner · Wolff v. McDonnell
Cited together with Christiansburg Garment Co. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission · Haines v. Kerner · Hensley v. Eckerhart · Estelle v. Gamble · Conley v. Gibson
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 4,629 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“frivolous, unreasonable, or without foundation.”
79 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a plaintiff should not be assessed his opponent's attorney's fees unless a court finds that his claim was frivolous, unreasonable, or groundless, or that the plaintiff continued to litigate after it clearly became so.”
31 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[A] complaint should not be dismissed for failure to state a claim unless it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of his claim which would entitle him to relief.”
24 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.