Farmer v. Brennan’s Empirical Analysis
1994
Citation profile
3,446 federal appellate · 1,500 district · 480 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16,147 later decisions (45 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Ashcroft v. Iqbal (2009), Hope v. Pelzer (2002)
3,446 federal appellate · 1,500 district · 480 state decisions — followed in 40 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 Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 242 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 1997E
Relies on Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics · Estelle v. Gamble · Bell v. Wolfish · City of Canton v. Harris · Gregg v. Georgia
Cited together with Estelle v. Gamble · Wilson v. Seiter · Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, 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 16,147 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the official must both be aware of facts from which the inference could be drawn that a substantial risk of serious harm exists, and he must also draw the inference.”
717 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a factfinder may conclude that a prison official knew of a substantial risk from the very fact that the risk was obvious.”
167 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“A prison official's 'deliberate indifference' to a substantial risk of serious harm to an inmate violates the Eighth Amendment.”
130 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.