Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project’s Empirical Analysis
2010
Citation profile
103 federal appellate · 45 district · 50 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 464 later decisions (57 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably 134 S. Ct. 2334 - Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus (2014), Beckles v. United States (2017)
103 federal appellate · 45 district · 50 state decisions — followed in 21 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
reviewedHumanitarian Law Project v. Mukasey (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 2339A (§ 120005 of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994) · 18 U.S.C. § 2339B (§ 303 of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) · 22 U.S.C. § 2656F · 8 U.S.C. § 1182 (§ 212 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1189 (§ 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter))
Relies on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Grayned v. City of Rockford · United States v. O'Brien · Hoffman Estates v. Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc. · Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 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 464 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[a] plaintiff who engages in some conduct that is clearly proscribed cannot complain of the vagueness of the law as applied to the conduct of others.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[A] valuable resource by definition. Such support frees up other resources within the organization that may be put to violent ends. It also importantly helps lend legitimacy to foreign terrorist groups-legitimacy that makes it easier for those groups to persist, to recruit members, and to raise funds-all of which facilitate more terrorist attacks.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[W]here, as here, a statute applies criminal penalties and at least arguably does so on the basis of content-based distinctions, I should think we would scrutinize the statute and justifications 'strictly'”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.