McMillian v. Monroe County’s Empirical Analysis
1997
Citation profile
284 federal appellate · 114 district · 108 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,216 later decisions (6 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd. (1999), Don Stenberg Attorney General of Nebraskas v. Leroy Carhart (2000)
284 federal appellate · 114 district · 108 state decisions — followed in 16 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
reviewedMcMillian v. Johnson (from Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Brady v. State of Maryland · Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Kentucky v. Graham · Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati · City of St. Louis v. Praprotnik
Cited together with Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati · City of St. Louis v. Praprotnik · Jett v. Dallas Independent School District · 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 1,216 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[a] court's task is to `identify those officials or governmental bodies who speak with final policymaking authority for the local governmental actor concerning the action alleged to have caused the particular constitutional or statutory violation at issue.'”
22 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[O]ur understanding of the actual function of a governmental official, in a particular area, will necessarily be dependent on the definition of the official's functions under relevant state law.”
19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“are final policymakers for the local government in a particular area, or on a particular issue.”
13 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.