Rhode v. Denson’s Empirical Analysis
776 F.2d 107 · 1985
Citation profile
14 federal appellate · 1 district · 5 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 33 later decisions — most recently April 2024 · most notably Jett v. Dallas Independent School District (1986), Keenan v. Tejeda (2002)
14 federal appellate · 1 district · 5 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 28 U.S.C. § 1343 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · City of Oklahoma City v. Tuttle · Foley v. Connelie · Familias Unidas v. Briscoe · Bennett v. City of Slidell
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 33 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'define objectives and choose the means of achieving them' without county supervision.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The determining factor, however, is neither that a constable is elected by voters from a subunit of the County nor that the commissioner’s court controls his salary. The critical circumstance is that ... a constable ... was not given that discretion, or range of choice, that is at the core of the power to impose one’s own chosen policy. It is true that a constable possesses a limited range of choice, which is essential even to virtually ministerial tasks. But a constable’s range of choice is no greater than that, for example, of a peace officer who must decide whether to arrest for a misdemeanor committed in his presence.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“unexceptionable proposition that local governments and their officials who act in conformance with a state statutory scheme will not be held liable for § 1983 damages if the scheme is later held unconstitutional.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.