American Civil Liberties Union v. City of Birmingham’s Empirical Analysis
791 F.2d 1561 · 1986
Citation profile
26 federal appellate · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 43 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2021 · most notably County of Allegheny v. American Civil Liberties Union (1989), American Jewish Congress v. City of Chicago (1987)
26 federal appellate · 1 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 5 U.S.C. § 6103
Relies on Lemon v. Kurtzman · Rector Etc of Holy Trinity Church v. United States · Lynch v. Donnelly · Wallace v. Jaffree · Zorach v. Clauson
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 43 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“When surrounded by multitude of secular symbols of Christmas, a nativity scene may do no more than remind an observer that the holiday has a religious origin. But when the nonreligious trappings — accretions of the centuries — are stripped away, there remains only the universally recognized symbol for the central affirmation of a single religion— Christianity. .... It is difficult to believe that the city’s practice of displaying an unadorned creche on the city hall would not convey to the non-Christian a message that the city endorses Christianity.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“figurines depicting the Christ Child, the Mother Mary, Joseph, three costumed shepherds, and several lambs,”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“Government promotes religion as effectively when it fosters a close identification of its powers and responsibilities with those of any — or all — religious denominations as when it attempts to incul cate specific religious doctrines. If this identification conveys a message of government endorsement or disapproval of religion, a core purpose of the Establishment Clause is violated.”
1 later decision 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.