Lerwill v. Joslin’s Empirical Analysis
712 F.2d 435 · 1983
Citation profile
38 federal appellate · 5 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 76 later decisions — most recently March 2022 · most notably Myers v. Morris (1987), Ashelman v. Pope (1986)
38 federal appellate · 5 district · 1 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 Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · Mathews v. Eldridge · Imbler v. Pachtman · Butz v. Economou
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 76 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[ 2,3] We begin our analysis by noting that Mr. Joslin’s acts against the Lerwills were part of his “initiation and presentation” of a prosecution rather than nonprosecutoriaí acts for which prosecutors generally are not absolutely immune from section 1983 suits for damages. His filing a criminal complaint against the Lerwills was clearly an initiation of a prosecution. As for the arrest, both before and after Imbler , a prosecutor’s absolute immunity has extended to his procurement of an arrest warrant. See, e.g., Martinez v. Chavez, 574 F.2d 1043 (10th Cir.1978); Smart v. Jones, 530 F.2d 64 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 887 , 97 S.Ct. 240 , 50 L.Ed.2d 168 (1976); Gregoire v. Biddle, 177 F.2d 579 (2d Cir.1949), ce rt. denied, 339 U.S. 949 , 70 S.Ct. 803 , 94 L.Ed. 1363 (1950); Yaselli v. Goff, 12 F.2d 396 (2d Cir.1926), aff'd, 275 U.S. 503 , 48 S.Ct. 155 , 72 L.Ed. 395 (1927). These cases are consistent with Imbler . In seeking a warrant for the Lerwills’ arrest, Mr. Joslin was acting as an advocate for the State before a neutral magistrate. His presentation of his arguments to a Justice of the Peace thus differs fundamentally from a prosecutor’s participating in an illegal search, see Marrero v. City of Hialeah, 625 F.2d 499 (5th Cir.1980), cert. denied sub nom. Rashkind v. Marrero, 450 U.S. 913 , 101 S.Ct. 1353 , 67 L.Ed.2d 337 (1981), issuing a libelous press release, id., participating in the illegal sale of seized property, see Coleman v. Turpen ], 697 F.2d [1341] ”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“A judge is absolutely immune from a section 1983 suit for damages only for (a) judicial acts (b) for which the judge has at least a semblance of subject matter jurisdiction.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he scope of the judge's jurisdiction must be construed broadly where the issue is the immunity of the judge.”
2 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.