Ray v. Proxmire’s Empirical Analysis
581 F.2d 998 · 1978
Citation profile
6 federal appellate · 7 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 24 later decisions — most recently February 2020
6 federal appellate · 7 district · 1 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 18 U.S.C. § 201 (Bank Bribery Amendments)
Relies on Conley v. Gibson · Scheuer v. Rhodes · Ohio Bureau of Employment Services v. Hodory · Cort v. Ash · Powell v. McCormack
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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In responding to a Senate inquiry into an exercise of his official powers, Senator Proxmire was engaged in a matter central to the jurisdiction of the Senate.... There is no indication that he disseminated his letter to anyone whose knowledge of its contents was not justified by legitimate legislative needs. Nor is there any suggestion that the statement objected to intimated anything not reasonably spurred by the subject of [the] inquiry.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In a society encouraging aggressive economic competition, this court has recognized that the tort of unfair competition is a somewhat anomalous creature. Its scope has therefore been limited to three categories: passing off one’s goods as those of another, engaging in activities designed solely to destroy a rival and using methods themselves independently illegal.”
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.