Heller v. Doe Ex Rel. Doe’s Empirical Analysis
1993
Citation profile
805 federal appellate · 456 district · 819 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 3,565 later decisions (31 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Washington v. Glucksberg (1997), District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)
805 federal appellate · 456 district · 819 state decisions — followed in 45 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 Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 12102 (§ 3 of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990)
Relies on Mathews v. Eldridge · In the Matter of Samuel Winship · City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center · Ernst & Ernst v. Hochfelder · Fuentes v. Shevin
Cited together with Federal Communications Commission v. Beach Communications, Inc. · City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center · Romer Governor of Colorado v. Evans · Nordlinger v. Hahn · City of New Orleans v. Dukes
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 3,565 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“if there is a rational relationship between the disparity of treatment and some legitimate governmental purpose.”
239 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he Equal Protection Clause directs that 'all persons similarly circumstanced [must] be treated alike.' ") (citation omitted). Rationality review also compels that the challenged legislation "find some footing in the realities of the subject addressed by the legislation.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[p]revious instances of violent behavior are an important indicator of future violent tendencies.”
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.