Board of Ed., Island Trees Union Free School Dist. No. 26 v. Pico’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
271 federal appellate · 142 district · 85 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,137 later decisions (33 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably New Jersey v. T. L. O. (1985), Bender v. Williamsport Area School District (1986)
271 federal appellate · 142 district · 85 state decisions — followed in 17 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
reviewedPico v. Board of Education (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. · United States v. Diebold, Inc. · Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle · Pickering v. Board of Education of Township High School District 205 Will County Illinois · Ernst & Ernst v. Hochfelder
Cited together with Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District · Epperson v. Arkansas · West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette · Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H
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 1,137 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the discretion of the States and local school boards must be exercised in a manner that comports with the transcendental imperatives of the First Amendment.”
35 later decisions quote this exact passage“are vitally important in the preparation of individuals for preparation as citizens and as vehicles for inculcating fundamental values necessary to the maintenance of a democratic political system”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage“[T]he right to receive ideas is a necessary predicate to the recipient's meaningful exercise of his own rights of speech, press and political freedom.”
8 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.