Darbin v. Nourse’s Empirical Analysis
664 F.2d 1109 · 1981
Citation profile
28 federal appellate · 4 district · 7 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 59 later decisions — most recently April 2025 · most notably Llaguno v. Mingey (1985), State v. Williams (1988)
28 federal appellate · 4 district · 7 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 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Irvin v. Dowd · Swain v. State of Alabama · Rosales-Lopez v. United States · Ham v. South Carolina · Dennis 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 59 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[qjuestions which merely invite an express admission or denial of prejudice are, of course, a necessary part of voir dire because they may elicit responses which will allow the parties to challenge jurors for cause. However, such general inquiries often fail to reveal relationships or interests ... which may cause unconscious or unacknowledged bias. For this reason, a more probing inquiry is usually necessary. [Darbin v. Nourse, 664 F.2d 1109, 1113 (9th Cir.1981).]”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The court may permit the parties or their attorneys to conduct the examination of prospective jurors or may itself conduct the examination. In the latter event, the court shall permit the parties or their attorneys to supplement the examination by such further inquiry as it deems proper or shall itself submit to the prospective jurors such additional questions of the parties or their attorneys as it deems proper.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“A general inquiry concerning a juror’s ability to try a case on the evidence presented at trial and the law provided by the court should, at least theoretically, serve to identify any bias that might preclude the juror from making an impartial decision. However, as a practical matter, such general inquiries are inadequate to alert the parties or the jurors themselves to potential sources of bias. If such a general question were adequate to identify prejudice, voir dire examination would, as a matter of course, be quite brief. A single, all-encom passing and conclusory question would be sufficient.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Depew v. Sullivan
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.