Blessing v. Freestone’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

548 federal appellate · 343 district · 134 state decisions

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 2,044 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “couched in mandatory, rather than precatory, terms.”

   224 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Gonzaga University v. Doe · City of Rancho Palos Verdes v. Abrams

2. “Three principal factors determine whether a statutory provision creates a privately enforceable right: (1) whether the plaintiff is an intended beneficiary of the statute; (2) whether the plaintiffs asserted interests are not so vague and amorphous as to be beyond the competence of the judiciary to enforce; and (3) whether the statute imposes a binding obligation on the State. 5”

   15 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. N.Y.S. Citizens' Coal. for Children v. Poole · Bowles v. Desantis

3. “because: 16 The state promises to provide certain services to private individuals, in exchange for which the Federal government promises to give the State funds. In contract law, when such an arrangement is made (A promises to pay B money, in exchange for which B promises to provide services to C), the person who receives the benefit of the exchange of promises between two others (C) is called a third-party beneficiary. 17 520 U.S. 329 , 349, 117 S.Ct. 1353, 137 L.Ed.2d 569 (1997) (Scalia, J., concurring). 18 Drawing on above language, the district judge then concluded that the”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 133 F. Supp. 2d 549 - Westside Mothers v. Haveman · Westside Mothers v. Haveman