Gaffney v. Silk’s Empirical Analysis
488 F.2d 1248 · 1973
Citation profile
22 federal appellate · 12 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 42 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2005 · most notably Gomez v. Toledo (1980), Schultea v. Wood (1995)
22 federal appellate · 12 district · 1 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. § 1343 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · Goldberg v. Kelly · Bell v. Burson · Sniadach v. Family Finance Corp. of Bay View · Romano v. United States
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 42 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[w]hile absolute immunity has been provided to judicial and certain quasi-judicial officers as well as state legislators, the courts have been noticeably reticent about extending such broad protection to lesser legislative and administrative officials such as town selectmen. See, e.g., Harrison v. Brooks, 446 F.2d 404 (1st Cir.1971); Cobb v. City of Malden, 202 F.2d 701 (1st Cir.1953). As to these officials, where independent judgment and discretion are involved, the courts have permitted only a qualified immunity____”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Thus, while a § 1983 action for money damages may be maintained against such officials, plaintiffs have the obligation to sufficiently allege and prove that defendant’s conduct was either “purposefully discriminatory,” Harrison v. Brooks, supra, 446 F.2d [404] at 407 [1st Cir. 1971] “knowing or reckless,” id. or “willful,” Ka-Haar, Inc. v. Huck, 345 F.Supp. 54 (E.D.Wis.1972) (emphasis added).”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Gomez v. Toledo“[t]o redress the deprivation, under color of any State law, statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage, of any right, privilege or immunity secured by the Constitution of the United States or by any Act of Congress providing for equal rights of citizens or of all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Gomez v. Toledo
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.