Turner v. Safley’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
2,305 federal appellate · 838 district · 815 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 7,895 later decisions (82 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Lewis Director Arizona Department of Corrections v. Casey (1996), Albright v. Oliver (1994)
2,305 federal appellate · 838 district · 815 state decisions — followed in 40 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
reviewedSafley v. Turner (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Haines v. Kerner · Wolff v. McDonnell · Bell v. Wolfish · Procunier v. Martinez
Cited together with O'Lone v. Estate of Shabazz · Thornburgh v. Abbott · Procunier v. Martinez · Bell v. Wolfish · Pell v. Procunier
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 7,895 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“reasonably related to legitimate penological interests.”
597 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“not inconsistent with his status as a prisoner or with the legitimate penological objectives of the corrections system.”
22 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“are expressions of emotional support and public commitment”
19 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.