Texas v. Johnson’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
821 federal appellate · 226 district · 575 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,635 later decisions (86 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. P Casey P Casey (1992), Rav v. City of St Paul Minnesota (1992)
821 federal appellate · 226 district · 575 state decisions — followed in 43 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.
Relationships
Relies on Buckley v. Valeo · Grayned v. City of Rockford · United States v. O'Brien · Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut
Cited together with United States v. O'Brien · Spence v. State of Washington · Rav v. City of St Paul Minnesota · Ward v. Rock Against Racism · Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District
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 2,635 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“If there is a bedrock principle underlying the First Amendment, it is that the government may not prohibit the expression of an idea simply because society finds the idea itself offensive or disagreeable.”
46 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[a]n intent to convey a particularized message was present, and ... the likelihood was great that the message would be understood by those who viewed it.”
41 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“sufficiently imbued with elements of communication”
40 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.