Lewis v. Downey’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

23 federal appellate · 2 district · 1 state decisions

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 56 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Jails are dangerous places, and it is without rational dispute that security officials are justified in maintaining decorum and discipline among inmates to minimize risks to themselves and other prisoners. See Bell [v. Wolfish,] 441 U.S. [520,] 546, 99 S.Ct. 1861 [ 60 L.Ed.2d 447 (1979) ] (“Maintaining institutional security and preserving internal order and discipline are essential goals that may require limitation or retraction of the retained constitutional rights of both convicted prisoners and pretrial detainees.”); Soto, 744 F.2d at 1269 (according prison officials wide-ranging deference to adopt and execute policies “needed to preserve internal order and discipline”). We have previously discussed how important it is that prisoners follow orders: Orders given must be obeyed. Inmates cannot be permitted to decide which orders they will obey, and when they will obey them.... Inmates are and must be required to obey orders. When an inmate refuse[s] to obey a proper order, he is attempting to assert his authority over a portion of the institution and its officials. Such refusal and denial of authority places the staff and other inmates in danger. Soto, 744 F.2d at 1267 ; see also Colon v. Schneider, 899 F.2d 660, 668-69 (7th Cir.1990).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Johnson v. Roberts

2. “The scope of an individual’s right to be free from punishment — and, derivatively, the basis for an excessive force action brought under § 1983 — hinges on his status within the criminal justice system. On one end of the spectrum are sentenced prisoners. The Eighth Amendment protects these individuals only from the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment, which is often defined in the prison context as the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain. Pretrial detainees, by contrast, have not been convicted or sentenced and thus are not yet punishable under the law. As such, pretrial detainees couch excessive force claims as violations of their Fourteenth Amendment rights to due process, not infringements on the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Forrest v. Prine

3. “As we have made clear, anything that would violate the Eighth Amendment would also violate the Fourteenth Amendment. Thus, we conclude that although we must evaluate [plaintiffs] claims under what we believe is the proper basis — here, the Fourteenth Amendment — we will do so only insofar as the alleged conduct would have violated the Eighth Amendment as well; we will not consider any safeguards the Fourteenth Amendment provides beyond those it shares with the Eighth Amendment. [Plaintiff] has argued only for these more limited protections.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 754 F. Supp. 2d 962 - HUNT EX REL. CHIOVARI v. Dart