Allen v. Wright’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
2,844 federal appellate · 1,784 district · 368 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 9,181 later decisions (162 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2026 · most notably Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly (2007), Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife (1992)
2,844 federal appellate · 1,784 district · 368 state decisions — followed in 37 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
reviewedWright v. Regan (from District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 170 · 26 U.S.C. § 2055 · 26 U.S.C. § 2522 · 26 U.S.C. § 3121 (Federal Insurance Contributions Act) · 26 U.S.C. § 3306 (Federal Unemployment Tax Act) · 26 U.S.C. § 501 · 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Civil Rights Act of 1866) · 42 U.S.C. § 2000D
Relies on Conley v. Gibson · Warth v. Seldin · Baker v. Carr · Roe v. Wade · Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc.
Cited together with Warth v. Seldin · Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc. · Simon v. Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights Organization · Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife · City of Los Angeles v. Lyons
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 9,181 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[a] plaintiff must allege personal injury fairly traceable to the defendant's allegedly unlawful conduct and likely to be redressed by the requested relief.”
544 later decisions quote this exact passage“examines the causal connection between the assertedly unlawful conduct and the alleged injury, whereas [redressability] examines the causal connection between the alleged injury and the judicial relief requested.”
25 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“Art. III requires the party who invokes the court's authority to show that he personally has suffered some actual or threatened injury as a result of the putatively illegal conduct of the defendant, and that the injury fairly can be traced to the challenged action and is likely to be redressed by a favorable decision.”
23 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.