Souza v. Pina’s Empirical Analysis
53 F.3d 423 · 1995
Citation profile
28 federal appellate · 24 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 62 later decisions — most recently March 2025 · most notably Martinez v. Colon (1995), Aversa v. United States (1996)
28 federal appellate · 24 district · 1 state decisions
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.
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1291 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Anderson v. Creighton · Mitchell v. Forsyth · Daniels v. Williams · Paul v. Davis
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 62 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Qualified immunity shields state officials exercising discretionary authority from civil damages 'insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have been aware.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'reasonable officer would understand that what he is doing violates that right'”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Pike v. Budd · Soto v. Carrasquillo“Although ‘[statements to the press may be an integral part of a prosecutor’s job, and ... may serve a vital public function,’ that function is strictly limited by the prosecutor’s overarching duty to do justice.’ Those who wield the power to make public statements about criminal cases must ‘be guided solely by their sense of public responsibility for the attainment of justice.’”
1 later decision 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.