United States v. Virginia’s Empirical Analysis
1996
Citation profile
398 federal appellate · 191 district · 210 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,407 later decisions (45 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2026 · most notably Roper Superintendent Potosi Correctional Center v. Simmons (2005), District of Columbia v. Heller (2008)
398 federal appellate · 191 district · 210 state decisions — followed in 35 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 Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 10 U.S.C. § 4342 · 20 U.S.C. § 1681 (§ 901 of the Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972) · 29 U.S.C. § 206 (Equal Pay Act of 1963) · 42 U.S.C. § 2000E (§ 703 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) · 5 U.S.C. § 553 (Administrative Procedure Act of 1946)
Relies on Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida · BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore · Craig v. Boren · Personnel Administrator of Mass. v. Feeney · Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pennsylvania v. P Casey P Casey
Cited together with City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center · Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan · Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena · Romer Governor of Colorado v. Evans · Craig v. Boren
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 1,407 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“must not rely on overbroad generalizations about the different talents, capacities, or preferences of males and females.”
38 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“substantially related to the achievement of those objectives.”
34 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“an exceedingly persuasive justification.”
25 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.