Plyler v. Doe’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
1,015 federal appellate · 593 district · 1,010 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,267 later decisions (64 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center (1985), Papasan v. Allain (1986)
1,015 federal appellate · 593 district · 1,010 state decisions — followed in 43 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
reviewedDoe v. Plyler (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1395 (§ 1801 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 42 U.S.C. § 1395I (§ 1818 of the Social Security Act of 1935) · 7 U.S.C. § 2015 · 8 U.S.C. § 1182 (§ 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1251 (§ 241 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1252 (§ 242 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1325 (§ 275 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter))
Relies on Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al. · Dandridge v. Williams · San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez · Reynolds v. Sims · Shapiro v. Thompson
Cited together with City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center · San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez · Mathews v. Diaz · Graham v. Richardson · Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth
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 4,267 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“all persons similarly circumstanced shall be treated alike.”
194 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Aliens, even aliens whose presence in this country is unlawful, have long been recognized as 'persons' guaranteed due process of law by the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment commands that no State shall 'deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws,' which is essentially a direction that all persons similarly situated should be treated alike.”
26 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.