Gregory v. Ashcroft’s Empirical Analysis
1991
Citation profile
743 federal appellate · 212 district · 355 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 2,268 later decisions (159 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2025 · most notably Coleman v. Thompson (1991), Immigration and Naturalization Service v. Enrico St Cyr (2001)
743 federal appellate · 212 district · 355 state decisions — followed in 36 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 Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 29 U.S.C. § 621 (§ 2 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967) · 29 U.S.C. § 623 (§ 4 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967) · 29 U.S.C. § 630 (§ 11 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967) · 29 U.S.C. § 794 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 2000E (§ 701 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964)
Relies on Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman · Will v. Michigan Department of State Police · City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center · Griggs v. Duke Power Co.
Cited together with New York v. United States · Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon · United States v. Lopez · Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida · Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority
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 2,268 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Through the structure of its government, and the character of those who exercise government authority, a State defines itself as a sovereign.”
39 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“if Congress intends to alter the 'usual constitutional balance between the States and the Federal Government,' it must make its intention to do so 'unmistakably clear in the language of the statute.'”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[Where] [c]ongressional interference [with a core state function] would upset the usual constitutional balance of federal and state powers[,] ... 'it is incumbent upon the federal courts to be certain of Congress' intent before finding that federal law overrides' this balance.”
22 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.