Ruckelshaus v. Sierra Club’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
612 federal appellate · 198 district · 68 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,697 later decisions (33 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2024 · most notably Farrar v. Hobby (1992), United States v. Nordic Village, Inc. (1992)
612 federal appellate · 198 district · 68 state decisions — followed in 18 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 District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 2412
Relies on Hensley v. Eckerhart · Alyeska Pipeline Service Company v. Wilderness Society · United States v. Turkette · Tennessee Valley Authority v. Hill · Indian Towing Company v. United States
Cited together with Hensley v. Eckerhart · Alyeska Pipeline Service Company v. Wilderness Society · McMahon v. United States · Library of Congress v. Shaw · Buckhannon Board and Care Home Incs v. West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources
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 1,697 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'enlarge[d] ... beyond what the language requires.'”
14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Except as otherwise specifically provided by statute, a court shall award to a prevailing party other than the United States fees and other expenses, in addition to any costs awarded pursuant to subsection (a), incurred by that party in any civil action (other than cases sounding in tort), including proceedings for judicial review of agency action, brought by or against the United States in any court having jurisdiction of that action, unless the court finds that the position of the United States was substantially justified or that special circumstances make an award unjust.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. In re Turner · Hardisty v. Astrue“[W]hen Congress has chosen to depart from the American Rule by statute, virtually every one of the more than 150 existing federal fee-shifting provisions predicates fee awards on some success by the claimant; while these statutes contain varying standards as to the precise degree of success necessary for an award of fees[,] ... the consistent rule is that complete failure will not justify shifting fees....”
9 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.