West v. Atkins’s Empirical Analysis
1988
Citation profile
953 federal appellate · 1,286 district · 318 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 5,763 later decisions (21 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2025 · most notably Edmonson v. Leesville Concrete Co. (1991), American Manufacturers Mutual Insurance v. Sullivan (1999)
953 federal appellate · 1,286 district · 318 state decisions — followed in 38 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
reviewedWest v. Atkins (from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. · Estelle v. Gamble · Parratt v. Taylor · Monroe v. Pape
Cited together with Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co. · Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · United States v. Classic
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 5,763 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.”
168 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“To state a claim under § 1983, a plaintiff must allege the violation of a right secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States, and must show that the alleged deprivation was committed by a person acting under color of state law.”
72 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“possessed by virtue of state law and made possible only because the wrongdoer is clothed with the authority of state law.”
64 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.