Arthur Silva v. James T. Lynn’s Empirical Analysis
482 F.2d 1282 · 1973
Citation profile
67 federal appellate · 24 district · 12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 138 later decisions — most recently July 2015 · most notably California v. Block (1982), 6 Cal. 4th 1112 - Laurel Heights Improvement Ass'n of San Francisco, Inc. v. Regents of University of California (1993)
67 federal appellate · 24 district · 12 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.
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1331 · 28 U.S.C. § 2112 · 42 U.S.C. § 4331 (§ 101 of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969) · 42 U.S.C. § 4332 (§ 102 of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969) · 5 U.S.C. § 702 · 5 U.S.C. § 706
Relies on Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe · Camp v. Pitts · Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Morton · Environmental Defense Fund, Inc. v. Ruckelshaus · Ely v. Velde
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 138 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“First, it permits the court to ascertain whether the agency has made a good faith effort to take into account the values NEPA seeks to safeguard. To that end it must “explicate fully its course of inquiry, its analysis and its reasoning.” Second, it serves as an environmental full disclosure law, providing information which Congress thought the public should have concerning the particular environmental costs involved in a project. [Therefore,] [i]t cannot be composed of statements “too vague, too general and too conclusory.” ... [Third,] and perhaps most substantively, the requirement of a detailed statement helps insure the integrity of the process of decision by precluding stubborn problems or serious criticism from being swept under the rug. A conclusory statement “unsupported by empirical or experimental data, scientific authorities, or explanatory information of any kind” not only fails to crystallize issues, but “affords no basis for a comparison of the problems involved with the proposed project and the difficulties involved in the alternatives.” ... Moreover, where comments from responsible experts or sister agencies disclose new or conflicting data or opinions that cause concern that the agency may not have fully evaluated the project and its alternatives, these comments may not simply be ignored. There must be good faith, reasoned analysis in response.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he law requires production of the entire administrative record. . While there may be instances in which the entire record need not be filed, where the correctness of factual findings are involved or where complainants request the full record, . . the agency must produce it in court.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“must be written in language that is understandable to nontechnical minds and yet contain enough scientific reasoning to alert specialists to particular problems within the field of their expertise.”
2 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.