Pierce v. Underwood’s Empirical Analysis
1988
Citation profile
1,903 federal appellate · 1,175 district · 413 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 7,646 later decisions (74 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2025 · most notably United States v. Booker (2004), Ornelas v. United States (1996)
1,903 federal appellate · 1,175 district · 413 state decisions — followed in 33 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
reviewedUnderwood v. Pierce (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Hensley v. Eckerhart · Consolidated Edison Co of New York v. National Labor Relations Board · Blum v. Stenson · Piper Aircraft Co. v. Reyno
Cited together with Hensley v. Eckerhart · Commissioner, Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Jean · Sullivan v. Hudson · Cooter & Gell v. Hartmarx Corp. · Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 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 7,646 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“justified to a degree that could satisfy a reasonable person.”
628 later decisions quote this exact passage“Whether or not the position of the United States was substantially justified shall be determined on the basis of the record (including the record with respect to the action or failure to act by the agency upon which the civil action is based) which is made in the civil action for which fees and other expenses are sought.”
132 later decisions quote this exact passage“unless the court determines that an increase in the cost of living or a special factor, such as the limited availability of qualified attorneys for the proceedings involved, justifies a higher fee.”
45 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.