National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. Claiborne Hardware Company’s Empirical Analysis
1982
Citation profile
579 federal appellate · 195 district · 469 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,884 later decisions (88 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2025 · most notably Connick v. Myers (1983), Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc. (1984)
579 federal appellate · 195 district · 469 state decisions — followed in 39 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.
Relationships
Applies 15 U.S.C. § 1 (§ 1 of the Sherman Antitrust Act) · 28 U.S.C. § 1343
Relies on United Mine Workers of America v. Gibbs · New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · United States v. O'Brien · San Diego Building Trades Council v. Garmon · National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. Y Button
Cited together with New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Connick v. Myers · Brandenburg v. Ohio · Carey v. Brown · Chaplinsky v. State of New Hampshire
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 1,884 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“highest rung of the hierarchy of First Amendment values”
43 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“one of the foundations of our society is the right of individuals to combine with other persons in pursuit of a common goal by lawful means,”
34 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence““Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.””
14 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.