Ayers v. Coughlin’s Empirical Analysis
780 F.2d 205 · 1985
Citation profile
22 federal appellate · 3 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 99 later decisions — most recently March 2025 · most notably Colon v. Coughlin (1995), Wright v. Smith (1994)
22 federal appellate · 3 district ·
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 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on United States v. Bailey · Williams v. Vincent · Matzker v. Herr · Martin v. White
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 99 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A]n isolated omission to act by a state prison guard does not support a claim under § 1983 absent circumstances indicating an evil intent, or recklessness, or at least deliberate indifference to the consequences of his conduct for those under his control and dependent upon him.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“link[ed] in the prison chain of command,”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. McKenna v. Wright
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.