Morse v. Frederick’s Empirical Analysis
2007
Citation profile
260 federal appellate · 66 district · 84 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 675 later decisions (12 by the Supreme Court) — most recently July 2025 · most notably Pearson v. Callahan (2009), Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission (2010)
260 federal appellate · 66 district · 84 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
reviewedFrederick v. Morse (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 20 U.S.C. § 7114 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District · Wood v. Strickland · New Jersey v. T. L. O. · Cohen v. California · Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton
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 675 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'the constitutional rights of students in public school are not automatically coextensive with the rights of adults in other settings.'”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“First, Fraser’s holding demonstrates that the constitutional rights of students in public school are not automatically coextensive with the rights of adults in other settings. Had Fraser delivered the same speech in a public forum outside the school context, it would have been protected. In school, however, Fraser’s First Amendment rights were circumscribed in light of the special characteristics of the school environment. Second, Fraser established that the mode of analysis set forth in Tinker is not absolute. Whatever approach Fraser employed, it certainly did not conduct the “substantial disruption” analysis prescribed by Tinker.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“special characteristics of the school environment.”
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.