59 Ill. 2d 362 - People v. Ridens’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 97 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 113 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2005 · most notably Pope v. Illinois (1987), Ward v. Illinois (1977)
4 federal appellate · 97 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
Relies on Broadrick v. Oklahoma · Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al. · Grayned v. City of Rockford · Hamling v. United States · Connally v. General Construction Co.
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 113 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(b) Obscene Defined. A thing is obscene if, considered as a whole, its predominant appeal is to prurient interest, that is, a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sex or excretion, and if it goes substantially beyond customary limits of candor in description or representation of such matters.”
15 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““A thing is obscene if considered as a whole, its predominant appeal is to a prurient interest, that is, a shameful or morbid interest in nudity, sex, or excretion, and, it goes substantially beyond customary limits of candor in its description or representation of such matters; for example, by a patently offensive description or representation of ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated, or by a patently offensive description or representation of masturbation, excretory functions, or lewd exhibition of the genitals, and, it is utterly without redeeming social value. In determining whether a thing is obscene, you are to consider how it would be viewed by ordinary adults in the whole State of Illinois rather than by the people in any single city or town or region within the State.” (Emphasis added.) (IPI Criminal 2d No. 9.57 (2d ed. 1981).)”
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.