Houston Lawyers' Association v. Attorney General of Texas League of United Latin American Citizens’s Empirical Analysis
1991
Citation profile
64 federal appellate · 12 district · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 192 later decisions (5 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2026 · most notably Holder v. Hall (1994), Republican Party of North Carolina v. Martin (1992)
64 federal appellate · 12 district · 6 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedthe decision below (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1973 (§ 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965)
Relies on Gomillion v. Lightfoot · East Carroll Parish School Board v. Marshall · Zimmer v. McKeithen · League of United Latin American Citizens Council No. 4434 v. Clements
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 192 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a legitimate factor to be considered by courts among the 'totality of circumstances' in determining whether a § 2 violation has occurred.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(a) No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision in a manner which results in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.... (b) A violation of subsection (a) of this section is established if, based on the totality of circumstances, it is shown that the political processes leading to nomination or election in the State or political subdivision are not equally open to participation by members of a class of citizens protected by subsection (a) of this section in that its members have less opportunity than other members of the electorate to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice. The extent to which members of a protected class have been elected to office in the State or political subdivision is one circumstance which may be considered: Provided, That nothing in this section establishes a right to have members of a protected class elected in numbers equal to their proportion in the population.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“If a State decides to elect its trial judges, as Texas did in 1861, those elections must be conducted in compliance with the Voting Rights Act.”
6 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.