Hardwick v. Bowers’s Empirical Analysis
760 F.2d 1202 · 1985
Citation profile
25 federal appellate · 4 district · 7 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 65 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2015 · most notably Bowers v. Hardwick (1986), Trujillo v. Board of County Commissioners (1985)
25 federal appellate · 4 district · 7 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.
Appellate journey
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1253 · 28 U.S.C. § 1257
Relies on Conley v. Gibson · Warth v. Seldin · Younger v. Harris · Edelman v. Jordan · Payton v. New York
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 65 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“... a summary disposition binds lower courts only until the Supreme Court indicates otherwise, [cites omitted]— Doctrinal developments need not take the form of an outright reversal of the earlier case. The Supreme Court may indicate its willingness to reverse or recon sider a prior opinion with such clarity that a lower court may properly refuse to follow what appears to be binding precedent.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“to our understanding of privacy. See Brief for Respondent Hardwick 10-12; Tr. of Oral Arg. 33. More importantly, the procedural posture of the case requires that we affirm the Court of Appeals' judgment if there is any ground on which respondent may be entitled to relief. This case is before us on petitioner's motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 12(b)(6). See App. 17. It is a well-settled principle of law that”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Bowers v. Hardwick“A summary affirmance of the Supreme Court has binding precedential effect. [Citing cases]. Yet because the court disposes of the case without explaining its reasons, the holding must be carefully limited. A summary affirmance by the Supreme Court represents approval by the Supreme Court of the judgment below but should not be taken as an endorsement of the reasoning of the lower court.”
1 later decision 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.