Brilla v. Pettit’s Empirical Analysis
2003
Citation profile
1 state decisions
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore · Lee v. Edwards · Spence v. Board of Education of Christina School District
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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The jury could certainly infer from [District Attorney’s] involvement — as an attorney, no less — that he should have known that a forfeiture proceeding could never take 11 years to come to fruition, and that at some point he should have questioned whether he was properly continuing to be the “stakeholder” of Brilla’s property. His indifference to the issue of whether he was justified in keeping such property gave rise to the award of punitive damages.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Pettit v. Namie
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.