Peterson v. Kopp’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

17 federal appellate · 7 district · 1 state decisions

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 81 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(1) he engaged in a protected activity, (2) [officers] took adverse action against him that would chill a person of ordinary firmness from continuing in the activity, and (3) the adverse action was motivated at least in part by the exercise of the protected activity.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Waters v. Madson · O'Toole v. City of Walnut Grove

2. “For a constitutional right to be clearly established, its contours 'must be sufficiently clear that a reasonable official would understand that what [the official] is doing violates that right. This is not to say that an official action is protected by qualified immunity unless the very action in question has previously been held unlawful; but it is to say that in the light of pre-existing law the unlawfulness must be apparent.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Clark v. Clark

3. “[a]n officer's use of force violates the Fourth Amendment if it is objectively unreasonable in light of the facts and circumstances of the particular case, as 'judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Neal v. Ficcadenti