Roberts v. United States Jaycees’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
913 federal appellate · 377 district · 690 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,426 later decisions (86 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2026 · most notably City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center (1985), Employment Division Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. L Smith (1990)
913 federal appellate · 377 district · 690 state decisions — followed in 48 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
reviewedUnited States Jaycees v. McClure (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 2000A (Civil Rights Act of 1964)
Relies on Hishon v. King & Spalding · Buckley v. Valeo · Paul v. Davis · Stanley v. Illinois · Grayned v. City of Rockford
Cited together with Board of Directors of Rotary International v. Rotary Club of Duarte · Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · Pickering v. Board of Education of Township High School District 205 Will County Illinois · Harlow v. Fitzgerald
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 3,426 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“First, the Court has held that the Constitution protects against unjustified government interference with an individual’s choice to enter into and maintain certain intimate or private relationships. Second, the Court has upheld the freedom of individuals to associate for the purpose of engaging in protected speech or religious activities.”
115 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“relative smallness, a high degree of selectivity in decisions to begin and maintain the affiliation, and seclusion from others in critical aspects of the relationship.”
87 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“long understood as implicit in the right to engage in activities protected by the First Amendment a corresponding right to associate with others in pursuit of a wide variety of political, social, economic, educational, religious, and cultural ends.”
67 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.