Western Air Lines, Inc. v. Criswell’s Empirical Analysis
1985
Citation profile
247 federal appellate · 67 district · 34 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 525 later decisions (25 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2022 · most notably Hazen Paper Co. v. Biggins (1993), Kimel v. Florida Board of Regents (2000)
247 federal appellate · 67 district · 34 state decisions — followed in 12 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
reviewedCriswell v. Western Airlines, Inc. (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 29 U.S.C. § 621 (§ 2 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967) · 29 U.S.C. § 623 (§ 4 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967) · 29 U.S.C. § 626 (§ 7 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967) · 29 U.S.C. § 631 (§ 12 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967) · 42 U.S.C. § 2000E (§ 703 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964)
Relies on Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine · Furnco Construction Corp. v. Waters · Cupp v. Naughten · Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Thurston · Lorillard v. Pons
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 525 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“all or substantially all [members of one gender] would be unable to perform safely and efficiently the duties of the job involved,”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“age is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the particular business.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““[T]he job qualifications which the employer invokes to justify his discrimination must be reasonably necessary to the essence of his business — here the safe transportation of bus passengers from one point to another. The greater the safety factor, measured by the likelihood of harm and the probable severity of that harm in ease of an accident, the more stringent may be the job qualifications designed to ensure safe driving.” 531 F.2d at 236 . This inquiry “adjusts to the safety factor” by ensuring that the employer’s restrictive job qualifications are “reasonably necessary” to further the overriding interest in public safety. Ibid.”
8 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.