Richardson v. McKnight’s Empirical Analysis
1997
Citation profile
226 federal appellate · 99 district · 63 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 732 later decisions (7 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Correctional Services Corp. v. Malesko (2001), City of Monterey v. Del Monte Dunes at Monterey, Ltd. (1999)
226 federal appellate · 99 district · 63 state decisions — followed in 15 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
reviewedMcKnight v. Rees (from Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Anderson v. Creighton · Mitchell v. Forsyth · Malley v. Briggs · Imbler v. Pachtman
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 732 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[W]e have answered the immunity question narrowly, in the context in which it arose. That context is one in which a private firm, systematically organized to assume a major lengthy administrative task (managing an institution) with limited direct supervision by the government, undertakes that task for profit and potentially in competition with other firms. The case does not involve a private individual briefly associated with a government body, serving as an adjunct to government in an essential government activity, or acting under close official supervision.”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“[P]rivate prison guards, unlike those who work directly for the government, do not enjoy immunity from suit in a § 1983 case.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“Earlier precedent described immunity as protecting the public from unwarranted timidity on the part of public officials by, for example, encouraging the vigorous exercise of official authority, by contributing to principled and fearless decision-making, and by responding to the concern that threatened liability would, in Judge Hand’s words, “dampen the ardour of all but the most resolute, or the most irresponsible,” public officials.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.