Class v. Norton’s Empirical Analysis
505 F.2d 123 · 1974
Citation profile
41 federal appellate · 7 district · 5 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 87 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2016 · most notably Alyeska Pipeline Service Company v. Wilderness Society (1975), Gagne v. Maher (1979)
41 federal appellate · 7 district · 5 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.
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 601 (§ 401 of the Social Security Act of 1935)
Relies on Scheuer v. Rhodes · Ex Parte: Edward T Young · Edelman v. Jordan · Goldberg v. Kelly · Mills v. Electric Auto-Lite Co.
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 87 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“... the court eschewed the requested contempt sanctions in favor of a detailed implementation plan designed to eliminate possible sources of continued non-compliance ...”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Proof of bad faith ordinarily suffices to justify an assessment of attorneys’ fees and costs against a defendant.... Where the defendant is insulated from liability by a qualified executive immunity of the scope witnessed here, however, ‘bad faith’ alone in the sense used here as illuminated by the facts found would not appear to be enough. In the absence of malice or a clear abuse of discretion, this punitive award does not lie against the Commissioner. Cf. Jordan v. Weaver, 472 F.2d 985, 999 (7th Cir.1973), rev’d on other grounds, sub nom. Edelman v. Jordan, 415 U.S. 615 , 94 S.Ct. 1347 , 39 L.Ed.2d 662 (1974). “In the light of the court’s findings, this award against the appellant personally must be reversed. The court specifically declined to infer ‘willful disobedience’ of its prior order, [Class v. Norton] 376 F.Supp. [496] at 498 [D.C.Conn.1974] or any ‘deliberate design’ to nullify that order, id. at 500. In addition, ‘much of the failure of compliance’ could be attributed to insufficient clarification of department policies, id. at 501 — a lamentable state of affairs to be sure, but hardly the stuff of which a case for malice or abuse of discretion may be made.” 505 F.2d at 127-28 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“These considerations suggest that, in varying scope, a qualified immunity is available to officers of the executive branch of government, the variation being dependent upon the scope of discretion and responsibilities of the office and all the circumstances as they reasonably appeared at the time of the action on which liability is sought to be based. It is the existence of reasonable grounds for the belief formed at the time and in light of all the circumstances, coupled with good-faith belief, that affords a basis for qualified immunity of executive officers for acts performed in the course of official conduct.”
1 later decision 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.