Widmar v. Vincent’s Empirical Analysis
1981
Citation profile
884 federal appellate · 270 district · 257 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,596 later decisions (133 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2024 · most notably Perry Education Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n (1983), Bender v. Williamsport Area School District (1986)
884 federal appellate · 270 district · 257 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 Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Grayned v. City of Rockford · McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher · Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · Lemon v. Kurtzman
Cited together with Perry Education Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n · Cornelius v. NAACP Legal Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. · Lemon v. Kurtzman · Rosenberger v. Rector & Visitors of University of Virginia · Lynch v. Donnelly
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 2,596 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The Constitution forbids a State to enforce certain exclusions from a forum generally open to the public, even if it was not required to create the forum in the first place.”
55 later decisions quote this exact passage“an open forum in a public university does not confer any imprimatur of state approval on religious sects or practices.”
52 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“A university differs in significant respects from public forums such as streets or parks or even municipal theaters. A university’s mission is education, and decisions of this Court have never denied a university’s authority to impose reasonable regulations compatible with that mission upon the use of its campus and facilities. We have not held, for example, that a campus must make all of its facilities equally available to students and nonstudents alike, or that a university must grant free access to all of its grounds or buildings.”
41 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.