Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife’s Empirical Analysis
1992
Citation profile
7,776 federal appellate · 6,590 district · 1,404 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 31,563 later decisions (176 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment (1998), Friends of the Earth Incorporateds v. Laidlaw Environmental Services Inc (2000)
7,776 federal appellate · 6,590 district · 1,404 state decisions — followed in 48 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
reviewedDefenders of Wildlife, Friends of Animals & their Environment v. Lujan (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · Warth v. Seldin · Baker v. Carr
Cited together with Warth v. Seldin · Allen v. Wright · Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment · Friends of the Earth Incorporateds v. Laidlaw Environmental Services Inc · Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc.
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 31,563 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“actual or imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical.”
1,960 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“invasion of a legally protected interest”
235 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“affect[s] the plaintiff in a personal and individual way.”
98 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
How later courts have treated this case
Across 103 classified citations — whether each later court relied on, limited, or rejected this decision:
- 60followed
- 22explained
- 21cited without characterization
Treatment is classified from each citing court's own sentence. This is a running sample — coverage grows as the classification pass proceeds; overrulings are also tracked authoritatively in the case status.