Schaffer Ex Rel. Schaffer v. Weast’s Empirical Analysis
2005
Citation profile
308 federal appellate · 192 district · 81 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,187 later decisions (21 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2026 · most notably Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc. (2009), Arlington Central School District Board of Education v. Murphy (2006)
308 federal appellate · 192 district · 81 state decisions — followed in 20 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
reviewedWeast v. Schaffer ex rel. Schaffer (from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 20 U.S.C. § 1400 (Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975) · 20 U.S.C. § 1406 · 20 U.S.C. § 1412 · 20 U.S.C. § 1415 · 30 U.S.C. § 901 (Black Lung Benefits Act) · 42 U.S.C. § 2000E (§ 701 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) · 5 U.S.C. § 556 (Administrative Procedure Act of 1946)
Relies on Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife · Mathews v. Eldridge · St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks · Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle
Cited together with Board of Education of Hendrick Hudson Central School District Bd of Ed Westchester County v. Rowley · School Committee of the Town of Burlington v. Department of Education · Florence County School District Four v. Carter Ex Rel. Carter · Honig v. Doe · 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 1,187 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“core of the statute . . . is the cooperative process that [IDEA] establishes between parents and schools.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“begin with the ordinary default rule that plaintiffs bear the risk of failing to prove their claims.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The burden of proof in an administrative hearing challenging an IEP is properly placed upon the party seeking relief.”
8 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.