Travis County v. Colunga’s Empirical Analysis
1988
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 23 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on Smith v. Henger · Clark, Sheriff v. Finley, Comptroller · Canales v. Laughlin · Citizens Bank of Bryan v. First State Bank · Kavanaugh v. Underwriters Life Ins. Co.
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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(a) A State or local governmental entity may not suspend or terminate the employment of, or take other adverse personnel action against, a public employee who in good faith reports a violation of law by the employing governmental entity or another public employee to an appropriate law enforcement authority. (b) In this section, a report is made to an appropriate law enforcement authority if the authority is part of a state or local governmental entity or of the federal government that the employee in good faith believes is authorized to: (1) regulate under or enforce the law alleged to be violated in the report; or (2) investigate or prosecute a violation of criminal law.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage“the statutory expression, “an appropriate law enforcement authority,” includes at minimum any public authority having the power and duty of inquiring into the lawfulness of the questioned conduct and causing its cessation if the conduct appears to be in violation of the law. Cf. City of Dallas v. Moreau, 697 S.W.2d at 474 .”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“(1) to protect public employees from retaliation by their employer when, in good faith, employees report a violation of law; and (2) in consequence, to secure lawful conduct on the part of those who direct and conduct the affairs of public bodies.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.