St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks’s Empirical Analysis
1993
Citation profile
3,376 federal appellate · 3,030 district · 1,157 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16,665 later decisions (20 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. (2000), Bowles v. Russell (2007)
3,376 federal appellate · 3,030 district · 1,157 state decisions — followed in 44 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
reviewedHalsell v. Kimberly-Clark Corp. (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 1621 · 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Civil Rights Act of 1866) · 42 U.S.C. § 1981A · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 2000E (§ 703 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) · 42 U.S.C. § 2000E (§ 706 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964)
Relies on McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green · Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine · Anderson v. City of Bessemer City · Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins
Cited together with McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green · Texas Department of Community Affairs v. Burdine · Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, 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 16,665 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The factfinder's disbelief of the reasons put forward by the defendant (particularly if disbelief is accompanied by a suspicion of mendacity) may, together with the elements of the prima facie case, suffice to show intentional discrimination.”
679 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“if believed by the trier of fact, would support a finding that unlawful discrimination was not the cause of the employment action.”
40 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“that the proffered reason was not the true reason for the employment decision,”
27 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.