Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives' Assn.’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
1,037 federal appellate · 302 district · 1,485 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,976 later decisions (80 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably United States v. Sokolow (1989), Illinois v. Rodriguez (1990)
1,037 federal appellate · 302 district · 1,485 state decisions — followed in 48 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
reviewedRailway Labor Executives' Ass'n v. Burnley (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 45 U.S.C. § 431 · 45 U.S.C. § 61
Relies on Terry v. Ohio · Katz v. United States · Bell v. Wolfish · Chimel v. California · Payton v. New York
Cited together with National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab · New Jersey v. T. L. O. · Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton · Griffin v. Wisconsin · Schmerber v. State of California
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 3,976 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In limited circumstances, where the privacy interests implicated by the search are minimal, and where an important governmental interest furthered by the intrusion would be placed in jeopardy by a requirement of individualized suspicion, a search may be reasonable despite the absence of such suspicion.”
294 later decisions quote this exact passage“discharge duties fraught with such risks of injury to others that even a momentary lapse of attention can have disastrous consequences.”
31 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
24 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.