City of Mesquite v. Aladdin's Castle, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
601 federal appellate · 296 district · 237 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,935 later decisions (41 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Delaware v. Van Arsdall (1986), Friends of the Earth Incorporateds v. Laidlaw Environmental Services Inc (2000)
601 federal appellate · 296 district · 237 state decisions — followed in 28 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
reviewedAladdin's Castle, Inc. v. City of Mesquite (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1254
Relies on Stanley v. Illinois · Delaware v. Prouse · Grayned v. City of Rockford · Griswold v. State of Connecticut · Connally v. General Construction Co.
Cited together with United States v. W. T. Grant Co. · Friends of the Earth Incorporateds v. Laidlaw Environmental Services Inc · United States v. Concentrated Phosphate Export Assn., Inc. · County of Los Angeles v. Davis · Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife
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 1,935 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a defendant's voluntary cessation of a challenged practice does not deprive a federal court of its power to determine the legality of the practice.”
109 later decisions quote this exact passage“I agree that this issue has not been mooted by the city’s revision of the ordinance. This conclusion is not inconsistent with our recent disposition of Princeton University v. Schmid, ante, p. 100 [102 S.Ct. p. 867] (per curiam). In that case, Princeton University’s regulations governing solicitation and similar activity on University property were held invalid by the New Jersey Supreme Court. While the case was pending before the New Jersey court, Princeton substantially amended the contested regulations. On appeal to this Court, we held that the validity of the old regulations had become a moot issue. Unlike the city of Mesquite, Princeton gave no indication that it desired to return to the original regulatory scheme and would do so absent a judicial barrier. In this case, as noted in the Court’s opinion, Mesquite “has announced just such an intention.” Ante, 455 U.S. at 289, n. 11, 102 S.Ct. at 1075, n. 11. Because the test of whether the cessation of allegedly illegal action moots a case requires that we evaluate the likelihood that the challenged action will recur, County of Los Angeles v. Davis, 440 U.S. 625 [ 99 S.Ct. 1379 , 59 L.Ed.2d 642 ] (1979), it is on this basis that our disposition of the two cases is consistent.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[V]ague laws defeat the intrinsic promise of, and frustrate the essence of, a constitutional regime. We remain `a government of laws, and not of men,' Marbury v. Madison , 5 U.S. (1 Cranch.) 137, 163 101 [1803], only so long as our laws remain clear.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.