Holmes v. Farmer’s Empirical Analysis
1984
Citation profile
2 district · 21 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions — most recently March 2024 · most notably Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission v. Fields (2003), In Re Advisory Opinion to the House of Representatives (1984)
2 district · 21 state decisions — followed in 10 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.
Relationships
Relies on Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman · Reynolds v. Sims · Tenney v. Brandhove · White v. Regester · Slaughter-House Cases the Butchers' Benevolent Association of New Orleans v. The Crescent City Live
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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[t]he speech in debate clause contained in Rhode Island's Constitution confers a privilege on legislators from inquiry into their legislative acts or into the motivation for actual performance of legislative acts that are clearly part of the legislative process.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“[i]nquiry by the court into the actions or motivations of the legislators in proposing, passing, or voting upon a particular piece of legislation * * * falls clearly within the most basic elements of legislative privilege.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“[i]n order fully to effectuate the purpose and design of the speech in debate clause, it must be construed as an immunity from suit as well as a testimonial privilege.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.