Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Cardoza-Fonseca’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
3,634 federal appellate · 426 district · 138 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 8,667 later decisions (105 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Elias-Zacarias (1992), Taylor v. United States (1990)
3,634 federal appellate · 426 district · 138 state decisions — followed in 24 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
reviewedCardoza-Fonseca v. U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 8 U.S.C. § 1101 (§ 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1153 (§ 203 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1157 (§ 207 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1158 (§ 208 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1159 (§ 209 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1253 (§ 243 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter))
Relies on Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Ernst & Ernst v. Hochfelder · Consumer Product Safety Commission v. GTE Sylvania, Inc. · Caminetti v. United States
Cited together with Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Elias-Zacarias · Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Stevic · Immigration and Naturalization Service, v. Juan Anibal Aguirre-Aguirre · National Labor Relations Board v. United Food & Commercial Workers Union, Local 23
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 8,667 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the statute is silent or ambiguous with respect to the specific issue,”
292 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”
110 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[a]n agency interpretation of a relevant provision which conflicts with the agency's earlier interpretation is 'entitled to considerably less deference' than a consistently held agency view.”
51 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.