KIRCHBERG v. FEENSTRA Et Al.’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
110 federal appellate · 21 district · 81 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 353 later decisions (37 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc. (1993), JEB v. Alabama Ex Rel. TB (1994)
110 federal appellate · 21 district · 81 state decisions — followed in 15 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
reviewedKirchberg v. Feenstra (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 1601 (§ 102 of the Truth in Lending Act)
Relies on Taylor v. Louisiana · Craig v. Boren · Personnel Administrator of Mass. v. Feeney · Reed v. Reed · Frontiero v. Richardson
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 353 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“that gave husband, as 'head and master' of property jointly owned with his wife, the unilateral right to dispose of such property without his spouse's consent”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"We apply our decision today prospectively only, because a holding of retroactive invalidity of article 2404 would create a substantial hardship with respect to property rights and obligations within the State of Louisiana. The Supreme Court has said: The actual existence of a statute, prior to [a determination of unconstitutionality], is an operative fact and may have consequences which cannot justly be ignored. The past cannot always be erased by a new judicial declaration. The effect of the subsequent ruling as to invalidity may have to be considered in various aspects, with respect to particular relations, individual and corporate, and particular conduct, private and official. Questions of rights claimed to have become vested, of status, of prior determinations deemed to have finality and acted upon accordingly, of public policy in the light of the nature both of the statute and of its previous application, demand examination.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Our decisions also establish that the party seeking to uphold a statute that classifies individuals on the basis of their gender must carry the burden of showing an 'exceedingly persuasive justification' for the classification.”
2 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.