Ayon v. Gourley’s Empirical Analysis
1998
Citation profile
7 district · 8 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corporation · Employment Division Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. L Smith · Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese for United States and Canada v. Milivojevich
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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[f]or this Court to insert itself into the process by which priests are chosen would substantially burden these Defendants' free exercise of a crucial power to control the future of the church and therefore constitute interference with the practice of their religion. It would also cause excessive entanglement in church operations by fostering inappropriate government involvement. The application of even general tort principles of law would require an inquiry into present practices with an intent to pass on their reasonableness.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“the procedures that the Archdiocese Defendants have in place regarding supervision would have to be examined to determine whether they were reasonable and adequate”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“would clearly be inappropriate governmental involvement and a burden on these Defendants' exercise of religion”
1 later decision 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.