Jean v. Nelson’s Empirical Analysis
1985
Citation profile
500 federal appellate · 96 district · 43 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,191 later decisions (24 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably West v. Atkins (1988), Reno v. Flores (1993)
500 federal appellate · 96 district · 43 state decisions
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
reviewedthe decision below (from Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe · Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association of United States Inc v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company Consumer Alert · Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle · Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner
Cited together with Landon v. Plasencia · Shaughnessy v. United States Ex Rel. Mezei · Jean v. Nelson · United States Knauff v. Shaughnessy · Ashwander v. Tennessee Valley Authority
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 1,191 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“If there is one doctrine more deeply rooted than any other in the process of constitutional adjudication, it is that we ought not to pass on questions of constitutionality ... unless such adjudication is unavoidable.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'Prior to reaching any constitutional questions, federal courts must consider nonconstitutional grounds for decision.'”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Of course, the fact that courts should not decide constitutional issues unnecessarily does not permit a court to press statutory construction 'to the point of disingenuous evasion' to avoid a constitutional question.”
7 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.