Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corporation’s Empirical Analysis
1986
Citation profile
7,995 federal appellate · 18,895 district · 721 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 96,217 later decisions (64 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2025 · most notably Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. (1986), Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H (1986)
7,995 federal appellate · 18,895 district · 721 state decisions — followed in 43 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
reviewedthe decision below (from Third Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. · United States v. Diebold, Inc. · First Nat. Bank of Ariz. v. Cities Service Co. · United States v. Socony-Vacuum Oil Co.
Cited together with Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green · Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. · United States v. Diebold, Inc.
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 96,217 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“must do more than simply show that there is some metaphysical doubt as to the material facts.”
1,863 later decisions quote this exact passage“must set forth specific facts showing that there is a genuine issue for trial.”
288 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Where the record taken as a whole could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the nonmoving party, there is no genuine issue for trial.”
201 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How later courts have treated this case
Across 250 classified citations — whether each later court relied on, limited, or rejected this decision:
- 175followed
- 46explained
- 25cited without characterization
- 3criticized
- 1distinguished
Treatment is classified from each citing court's own sentence. This is a running sample — coverage grows as the classification pass proceeds; overrulings are also tracked authoritatively in the case status.