IBP, Inc. v. Alvarez’s Empirical Analysis
2005
Citation profile
195 federal appellate · 81 district · 41 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 725 later decisions (53 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2025 · most notably Nijhawan v. Holder (2009), Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Inc. v. Dabit (2006)
195 federal appellate · 81 district · 41 state decisions — followed in 13 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
reviewedAlvarez v. IBP, Inc. (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 29 U.S.C. § 201 (American Samoa Labor Standards Amendments of 1956) · 29 U.S.C. § 203 · 29 U.S.C. § 252 · 29 U.S.C. § 254
Relies on Anderson v. Mt. Clemens Pottery Co. · Tennessee Coal Iron Co v. Muscoda Local No 123 Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Co · Armour & Co. v. Wantock · Sullivan v. Stroop · Steiner v. Mitchell
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 725 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(1) walking, riding, or traveling to and from the actual place of performance of the principal activity or activities which such employee is employed to perform, and (2) activities which are preliminary to or postliminary to said principal activity or activities, which occur either prior to the time on any particular workday at which such employee commences, or subsequent to the time on any particular workday at which he ceases, such principal activity or activities.”
22 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he term principal activity ... embraces all activities which are an integral and indispensable part of the principal activities.”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“physical or mental exertion (whether burdensome or not) controlled or required by the employer and pursued necessarily and primarily for the benefit of the employer and his business.”
5 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.