Shaw v. Delta Air Lines, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
2,012 federal appellate · 1,073 district · 1,121 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 7,921 later decisions (107 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2025 · most notably Firestone Tire and Rubber Company v. Bruch (1989), Pilot Life Insurance v. Dedeaux (1987)
2,012 federal appellate · 1,073 district · 1,121 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
reviewedthe decision below (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1331 · 29 U.S.C. § 1001 (§ 2 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1002 (§ 3 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1003 (§ 4 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1144 (§ 514 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 1221 (§ 3021 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974) · 29 U.S.C. § 206 (Equal Pay Act of 1963) · 42 U.S.C. § 2000E (§ 701 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964)
Relies on Ex Parte: Edward T Young · Franchise Tax Board of the State of California v. Construction Laborers Vacation Trust for Southern California · Consumer Product Safety Commission v. GTE Sylvania, Inc. · Hines v. Davidowitz
Cited together with Pilot Life Insurance v. Dedeaux · Ingersoll-Rand Co. v. McClendon · Metropolitan Life Insurance v. Massachusetts · Alessi v. Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc. · Metropolitan Life Insurance v. Taylor
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 7,921 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“if it has a connection with or reference to such a plan.”
468 later decisions quote this exact passage“[s]ome state actions may affect employee benefit plans in too tenuous, remote, or peripheral a manner to warrant a finding that the law 'relates to' the plan.”
121 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“all laws, decisions, rules, regulations, or other State action having the effect of law, of any State.”
112 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.