Watters v. City of Philadelphia’s Empirical Analysis
55 F.3d 886 · 1995
Citation profile
27 federal appellate · 15 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 104 later decisions — most recently July 2023 · most notably Woodson v. Scott Paper Co. (1997), Merkle v. Upper Dublin School District (2000)
27 federal appellate · 15 district · 2 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 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle · Pickering v. Board of Education of Township High School District 205 Will County Illinois · Connick v. Myers · Rankin v. McPherson · Garrity v. State of New Jersey
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 104 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'independent constitutional judgment on the facts of the case'”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“absent the most unusual circumstances, a federal court is not the appropriate forum in which to review the wisdom of a personnel decision taken by a public agency allegedly in reaction to the employee's behavior.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“See e.g., Pickering [v. Bd. of Educ.], 391 U.S. [563,] 566, [ 88 S.Ct. 1731 , 20 L.Ed.2d 811 (1968)] ... (letter to the editor criticizing Board of Education's allocation of school funds); Mt. Healthy [City Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ. v. Doyle], 429 U.S. [274,] 282 [ 97 S.Ct. 568 , 50 L.Ed.2d 471 (1977)] ... (telephone call to a local radio station about memorandum on teacher dress codes); Zamboni v. Stamler, 847 F.2d 73, 75 (3d Cir.1988)(public criticism of proposed reorganization of prosecutor's office), ... Johnson v. Lincoln University, 776 F.2d 443 , 452 (3d Cir.1985)(letters by university professor to accreditation body alleging low academic standards in university); Czurlanis [v. Albanese], 721 F.2d [98,] 100-01 [(3d Cir.1983)] (speeches at Board of Chosen Freeholders meetings criticizing practices of Division of Motor Vehicles); Monsanto v. Quinn, 674 F.2d 990, 996-97 (3d Cir.1982)(letlers to tax commissioner criticizing management of tax division).”
2 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.