John Doe v. John Doe’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
239 federal appellate · 348 district · 62 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 989 later decisions (13 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2024 · most notably United States Department of State v. Ray (1991), United States Department of Justice v. Landano (1993)
239 federal appellate · 348 district · 62 state decisions — followed in 11 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
reviewedthe decision below (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 5 U.S.C. § 552 (Freedom of Information Act)
Relies on National Labor Relations Board v. Sears, Roebuck & Co. · Department of the Air Force v. Rose · United States Department of Justice v. Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press · Environmental Protection Agency v. Mink · Gregory Lumber Co. 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 989 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(b) This section does not apply to matters that are— (2) related solely to the internal personnel rules and practices of an agency; (5) inter-agency or intra-agency memorandums or letters which would not be available by law to a party other than an agency in litigation with the agency; (7) records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production of such law enforcement records or information ... (C) could reasonably be expected to constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy, (D) could reasonably be expected to disclose the identity of a confidential source, including a State, local, or foreign agency or authority or any private institution which furnished information on a confidential basis and, in the case of a record or information compiled by criminal law enforcement authority in the course of a criminal investigation or by an agency conducting a lawful national security intelligence investigation, information furnished by a confidential source, (E) would disclose techniques and procedures for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions, or would disclose guidelines for law enforcement investigations or prosecutions if such disclosure could reasonably be expected to risk circumvention of the law ...”
24 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The basic purpose of FOIA is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“statutory exemptions are intended to have meaningful reach and application.”
8 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.