Fowler v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
68 F.3d 124 · 1995
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 2 district · 2 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 64 later decisions — most recently January 2019 · most notably Cecilia Okoye v. The University of Texas Houston Health Science Center (2001), Jones v. State (1998)
5 federal appellate · 2 district · 2 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 Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill · Pennhurst State School & Hospital v. Halderman · Salas v. Carpenter · Martin v. John W. Stone Oil Distributor, Inc. · Thompson v. City of Starkville
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 64 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“direct evidence of improper motive is usually difficult, if not impossible, to obtain and requiring direct evidence would effectively insulate from suit public officials who deny an improper motive in cases such as this.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Anderson v. Valdez“direct evidence in proving illegitimate intent is not required to avoid summary judgment in unconstitutional retaliation claims; circumstantial evidence will suffice.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Anderson v. Valdez“the public employee's interest in commenting on matters of public concern must outweigh the public employer's interest in promoting efficiency;”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Gerhart v. Hayes
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.