Mitchell v. Forsyth’s Empirical Analysis
1985
Citation profile
7,184 federal appellate · 1,354 district · 1,139 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16,260 later decisions (120 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Ashcroft v. Iqbal (2009), Anderson v. Creighton (1987)
7,184 federal appellate · 1,354 district · 1,139 state decisions — followed in 46 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
reviewedForsyth v. Kleindienst (from Third Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Katz v. United States · Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics · Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp.
Cited together with Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Anderson v. Creighton · Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp. · Malley v. Briggs · Johnson v. Jones
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 16,260 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“an entitlement not to stand trial or face the other burdens of litigation.”
293 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.”
233 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“to the extent that it turns on an issue of law.”
161 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.