Block v. Rutherford’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
467 federal appellate · 125 district · 126 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,210 later decisions (33 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2025 · most notably Hudson v. Palmer (1984), Turner v. Safley (1987)
467 federal appellate · 125 district · 126 state decisions — followed in 26 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
reviewedRutherford v. Pitchess (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Mathews v. Eldridge · Wolff v. McDonnell · Bell v. Wolfish · Santosky v. Kramer · Parratt v. Taylor
Cited together with Bell v. Wolfish · Turner v. Safley · Pell v. Procunier · Hudson v. Palmer · Wolff v. McDonnell
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 1,210 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“in the absence of substantial evidence in the record to indicate that the officials have exaggerated their response to these considerations.”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Bee v. Greaves · Goff v. Nix“Any inquiry into the constitutionality of security measures employed in a penal institution must begin with the premise that “prison administrators should be accorded wide-ranging deference in the adoption and execution of policies and practices that in their judgment are needed to preserve internal order and discipline and to maintain institutional security.””
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“further balancing resulted in an impermissible substitution of its views on the proper administration of Central Jail for that of the experienced administrators of that facility”
5 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.