Wisconsin v. Mitchell’s Empirical Analysis
1993
Citation profile
250 federal appellate · 64 district · 269 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 805 later decisions (21 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2025 · most notably Apprendi v. New Jersey (2000), City of Chicago v. Morales (1999)
250 federal appellate · 64 district · 269 state decisions — followed in 30 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.
Relationships
Relies on Hishon v. King & Spalding · Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins · United States v. O'Brien · Williams v. People of State of New York · United States v. Tucker
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 805 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A] physical assault is not ... expressive conduct protected by the First Amendment.”
44 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The First Amendment ... does not prohibit the evidentiary use of speech to establish the elements of a crime or to prove motive or intent.”
24 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he sort of chill envisioned here is far more attenuated and unlikely than that contemplated in traditional “overbreadth” cases. We must conjure up a vision of a Wisconsin citizen suppressing his unpopular bigoted opinions for fear that if he later commits an offense covered by the statute, these opinions will be offered at trial to establish that he selected his victim on account of the victim’s protected status, thus qualifying him for penalty-enhancement. To stay within the realm of rationality, we must surely put to one side minor misdemeanor offenses covered by the statute, such as negligent operation of a motor vehicle (Wis.Stat. § 941.01 (1989-1990)); for it is difficult, if not impossible, to conceive of a situation where such offenses would be racially motivated. We are left, then, with the prospect of a citizen suppressing his bigoted beliefs for fear that evidence of such beliefs will be introduced against him at trial if he commits a more serious offense against person or property. This is simply too speculative a hypothesis to support Mitchell’s overbreadth claim.”
7 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.