Wilkinson v. Forst’s Empirical Analysis
1986
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 3 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 8 later decisions — most recently January 2004
4 federal appellate · 3 district ·
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 Terry v. Ohio · Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · Bell v. Wolfish · Delaware v. Prouse
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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The venerable Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes observed more than a half-century ago that “if there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought — not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate.” It has since been recognized in many difficult circumstances that “[fjreedom of thought carries with it the freedom to speak freely and to publicly assemble to express one’s thoughts.” These fundamental principles of American constitutional law must guide the court in resolving the important issue raised in this litigation — namely, whether the stopping and searching of all persons attending political rallies sponsored by the Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan (“the Klan”) in the State of Connecticut infringe rights guaranteed by the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. It is useful at the outset to take note of those matters that are not at issue in this litigation. Most importantly, this lawsuit does not concern the merits of the political philosophy espoused by the Klan or by those organizations that have vehemently protested the Klan’s presence in the State of Connecticut and sought to interfere with the public expression of the Klan’s views. Indeed, the court could not decide this case on the basis of its approval or disapproval of the political views held by one or more of the parties, for, as the Supreme Cour”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“firearm[s] or other dangerous weapons or instruments”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Wilkinson v. Forst
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.