Lynch v. Donnelly’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
955 federal appellate · 263 district · 165 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,440 later decisions (78 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably City of Boerne v. Flores (1997), Agostini v. Felton Chancellor Board of Education of the City of New York (1997)
955 federal appellate · 263 district · 165 state decisions — followed in 23 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
reviewedDonnelly v. Lynch (from First Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on McGowan v. State of Maryland Gallagher · Lemon v. Kurtzman · Pullman-Standard v. Swint · School District of Abington Township Pennsylvania v. Schempp J Murray III · Everson v. Board of Education
Cited together with Lemon v. Kurtzman · County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union · Wallace v. Jaffree · School District of Abington Township Pennsylvania v. Schempp J Murray III · Edwards v. Aguillard
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 2,440 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“sends a message to nonadherents that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.”
263 later decisions quote this exact passage“a wall of separation” between church and state. 38 Meanwhile George Washington and John Adams acknowledged a common Protestant heritage and urged the creation and support of a civic Christian religion. 39 Still others counseled the First Amendment was simply meant to keep Congress from interfering with state-sponsored religious establishment. 40 Today’s fear of a religious establishment need not”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“[T]o pass muster under the establishment clause the law in question, first, must reflect a clearly secular legislative purpose, second, must have a primary effect that neither advances nor inhibits religion, and third, must avoid escessive government entanglement with religion.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.