Sellars v. Procunier’s Empirical Analysis
641 F.2d 1295 · 1981
Citation profile
70 federal appellate · 20 district · 15 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 155 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2024 · most notably Cleavinger v. Saxner (1985), Scotto v. Almenas (1998)
70 federal appellate · 20 district · 15 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 Scheuer v. Rhodes · Imbler v. Pachtman · Pierson v. Ray · Butz v. Economou · Wood v. Strickland
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 155 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“to render impartial decisions in cases and controversies that excite strong feelings because the litigant's liberty is at stake.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“Absolute immunity, as the Supreme Court has acknowledged, leaves the genuinely wronged person without civil redress. However, broader societal concerns dictate that the balance be struck in favor of freeing judges from the constant fear of retaliatory suits. The alternative of qualified immunity, or no immunity at all, would disserve the public interest, because these officials would still be subject in some degree to vexatious litigation.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“Nevertheless, the balance might not be struck in favor of absolute immunity were it not for the presence of safeguards built into the judicial process that tend to reduce the need for private damage actions as a means of controlling unconstitutional conduct.”
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.