Tillery v. Owens’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 5 district · 4 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22 later decisions — most recently August 2017
2 federal appellate · 5 district · 4 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 Estelle v. Gamble · Ex Parte: Edward T Young · Bell v. Wolfish · Edelman v. Jordan · Pennhurst State School and Hospital v. Halderman
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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Simply providing a prisoner with books in his cell, if he requests them, gives the prisoner no meaningful chance to explore the legal remedies he might have. Legal research often requires browsing through various materials in search of inspiration; tentative theories may have to be abandoned in the course of research in the face of unfamiliar adverse precedent. New theories may occur as a result of a chance discovery of an obscure or forgotten case. Certainly a prisoner, unversed in the law and the methods of legal research, will need more time or more assistance than the trained lawyer in exploring his case. It is unrealistic to expect a prisoner to know in advance exactly what materials he needs to consult.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“Prisoners have a well-established constitutional due process right to access to the courts. It is fundamental that access to the courts for the purpose of challenging confinement or violations of civil rights may not be denied or obstructed---- Although the right of court access is not absolute and may be curtailed to accommodate institutional security interests, the burden rests with the state to demonstrate the adequacy of the methods it chooses in extending this right.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Moore v. Lehman“the auditorium and gymnasium are virtual dens for violence. Assaults, stabbings, rapes, and gang fights occur in the auditorium. During peak times, several hundred inmates may be present in these facilities with only one corrections officer.... The corrections officers do not make rounds; they wisely choose to stand by the door next to the riot button.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Tillery v. Owens
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.