Johnson v. Lynaugh’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
20 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 20 later decisions — most recently March 2013
20 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
reviewedthe decision below (from Texas 349th Judicial District Court)
Relationships
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1915
Relies on Green v. McKaskle · Hunt v. Bass
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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(a) A court in which an affidavit of inability to pay under Rule 145, Tex.R.Civ.P. has been filed may dismiss the action on a finding ... 2) The action is frivolous ... (b) In determining whether an action is frivolous ... the court may consider whether, 2) The claim has no arguable basis in law or in fact....”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage“Unlike most litigants, prisoners have everything to gain and nothing to lose by filing frivolous suits. Filing a suit in forma pauperis costs a prisoner little or nothing; time is usually of little importance to a prisoner and prisoners are not often deterred by the threat of possible sanctions for malicious or frivolous actions or perjury ... Thus, the temptation to file frivolous suits is strong, and these suits clutter up the federal courts, wasting scarce and valuable judicial resources, subjecting prison officials unnecessarily to the burdens of litigation and preventing prisoner suits with merit from receiving adequate attention.”
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.