Porter v. Califano’s Empirical Analysis
592 F.2d 770 · 1979
Citation profile
81 federal appellate · 13 district · 7 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 161 later decisions — most recently March 2024 · most notably Conaway v. Smith (1988), Egger v. Phillips (1983)
81 federal appellate · 13 district · 7 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 Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe · New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Pickering v. Board of Education of Township High School District 205 Will County Illinois · Goldberg v. Kelly · Califano v. Sanders
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 161 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“it would be absurd to hold that the First Amendment generally authorizes corrupt officials to punish subordinates who blow the whistle simply because the speech somewhat disrupted the office.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In setting aside the lower court’s cursory rejection of Porter’s constitutional claim, we note the possibility that the court may have relied on agency findings or deferred to agency rulings in making its decision. This too would be error. The intent of Congress in 5 U.S.C. § 706 (2)(B) was that courts should make an independent assessment of a citizen’s claim of constitutional right when reviewing agency decision-making.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Pickering states that the First Amendment requires the government not just to show that certain employee speech injures the government, but to show that the benefits of preventing the injury actually outweigh the profound benefits of free speech in this society.”
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.