Webster v. Reproductive Health Services’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
262 federal appellate · 64 district · 227 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 828 later decisions (23 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably United States v. Booker (2004), Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. P Casey P Casey (1992)
262 federal appellate · 64 district · 227 state decisions — followed in 32 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
reviewedReproductive Health Service v. Webster (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Erie Co v. Tompkins · Illinois v. Gates · New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Mapp v. Ohio · Roe v. Wade
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 828 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the life of each human being begins at conception”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“[NJothing in the language of the Due Process Clause itself requires the State to protect the life, liberty and property of its citizens against invasion by private actors. The Clause is phrased as a limitation on the State’s power to act, not as a guarantee of certain minimal levels of safety and security.... [I]ts language cannot fairly be extended to impose an affirmative obligation on the State to ensure that those interests do not come to harm through other means.... Consistent with these principles, our cases have recognized that the Due Process Clauses generally confer no affirmative right to governmental aid, even where such aid may be necessary to secure life, liberty or property interests of which the government itself may not deprive the individual, (citations omitted).”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Certainly the preamble does not by its terms regulate abortion or any other aspect of appellees’ medical practice. The Court has emphasized that Roe v. Wade “implies no limitation on the authority of a State to make a value judgment favoring childbirth over abortion.” Maher v. Roe, 432 U.S. [464] at 474, 53 L.Ed.2d 484 , 97 S.Ct. 2376 [2382]. The preamble can be read simply to express that sort of value judgment.”
4 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.