Zerilli v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
656 F.2d 705 · 1981
Citation profile
64 federal appellate · 35 district · 35 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 185 later decisions — most recently March 2024 · most notably Naartex Consulting Corp. v. Watt (1983), United States v. Burke (1983)
64 federal appellate · 35 district · 35 state decisions — followed in 22 states
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 Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics · New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Alderman v. United States · Branzburg v. Hayes · New York Times Company v. United States
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 185 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“in the ordinary case the civil litigant's interest in disclosure should yield to the journalist's privilege. Indeed, if the privilege does not prevail in all but the most exceptional cases, its value will be substantially diminished.”
14 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“so that it could bare the secrets of government and inform the people.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Although Branzburg may limit the scope of a reporter's First Amendment privilege in criminal proceedings, this circuit has previously held that in civil cases, where the public interest in effective law enforcement is absent, that case is not controlling.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.