Ness v. Marshall’s Empirical Analysis
660 F.2d 517 · 1981
Citation profile
108 federal appellate · 55 district · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 330 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2019 · most notably Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois (1990), Gans v. Mundy (1985)
108 federal appellate · 55 district · 6 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 Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. · Elrod v. Burns · Branti v. Finkel · Ratcliff v. Bruce
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 330 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“party affiliation is an appropriate requirement for the effective performance of the public office involved.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“highly likely to cause an official to be ineffective in carrying out”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[W]e agree with the district court that, as a matter of law, the duties imposed on city solicitors by the York Administrative Code and the undisputed functions entailed by these duties e.g., rendering legal opinions, drafting ordinances, [and] negotiating contracts define a position for which party affiliation is an appropriate requirement. In relying on an attorney to perform these functions so intimately related to city policy, the mayor has the right to receive the complete cooperation and loyalty of a trusted adviser, and should not be expected to settle for less.”
7 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.