Fenster v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis
617 F.2d 740 · 1979
Citation profile
36 federal appellate · 46 district · 4 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 98 later decisions — most recently March 2019 · most notably Weisberg v. U.S. Department of Justice (1984), Fund for Constitutional Government v. National Archives & Records Service (1981)
36 federal appellate · 46 district · 4 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 28 U.S.C. § 294 · 5 U.S.C. § 552 (Freedom of Information Act)
Relies on Jones v. Nor-Tex Agencies, Inc. · Gilbert A. Cuneo v. Donald H. Rumsfeld · Nationwide Building Maintenance, Inc. v. Sampson · Gilbert A. Cuneo v. James A. Schlesinger, Secretary of Defense · Vermont Low Income Advocacy Council, Inc. v. Usery
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 98 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The court may assess against the United States reasonable attorney fees and other litigation costs reasonably incurred in any case under this section in which the complainant has substantially prevailed.”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“speaks for an award of [attorney's fees] where the complainant's victory is likely to add to the fund of information that citizens may use in making vital political choices.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'(1) the benefit to the public, if any, derived from the case; (2) the commercial benefit to the complainant; (3) the nature of the complainant's interest in the records sought; and (4) whether the government's withholding of the records had a reasonable basis in law.'”
4 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.