Smith v. Barry’s Empirical Analysis
1992
Citation profile
673 federal appellate · 18 district · 60 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,674 later decisions (9 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably Scarborough v. Principi (2004), LeBlanc v. Great American Insurance (1993)
673 federal appellate · 18 district · 60 state decisions — followed in 13 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 Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Foman v. Davis · Torres v. Oakland Scavenger Co. · United States v. Alaska · White v. Illinois
Cited together with Torres v. Oakland Scavenger Co. · Foman v. Davis · Bowles v. Russell · Browder v. Director Department of Corrections of Illinois · Slack v. McDaniel
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 1,674 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“is the functional equivalent of what the rule requires.”
31 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“If a document filed within the time specified by Rule 4 gives the notice required by Rule 3, it is effective as a notice of appeal.”
30 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“designate the judgment, order or part thereof appealed from.”
25 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.