Gonzales v. O Centro Espírita Beneficente União Do Vegetal’s Empirical Analysis
2006
Citation profile
329 federal appellate · 203 district · 95 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,026 later decisions (28 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Munaf v. Geren (2008), Sossamon v. Texas (2011)
329 federal appellate · 203 district · 95 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
reviewedthe decision below (from Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 21 U.S.C. § 801 (§ 101 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 812 (§ 202 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 822 (§ 302 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 42 U.S.C. § 1996A · 42 U.S.C. § 2000B
Relies on Wisconsin v. Yoder · Sherbert v. Verner · Morton v. Mancari · Employment Division Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. L Smith · City of Boerne v. Flores
Cited together with Employment Division Department of Human Resources of Oregon v. L Smith · Sherbert v. Verner · Wisconsin v. Yoder · Church of the Lukumi Babalu Aye, Inc. v. City of Hialeah · Thomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division
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 1,026 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[n]o government shall impose a substantial burden on the religious exercise of a person residing in or confined to an institution ... even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability, unless the government demonstrates that imposition of the burden on that person-(1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and (2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he burdens at the preliminary injunction stage track the burdens at trial.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“demonstrate that the compelling interest test is satisfied through application of the challenged law to ... the particular claimant whose sincere exercise of religion is being substantially burdened.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.