Joseph v. Patterson’s Empirical Analysis
795 F.2d 549 · 1986
Citation profile
46 federal appellate · 3 district · 5 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 107 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2025 · most notably Kalina v. Fletcher (1997), Rose 88-1634 v. Bartle a Reed W 88-1646 (1989)
46 federal appellate · 3 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 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Conley v. Gibson · Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Mitchell v. Forsyth · Malley v. Briggs · Imbler v. Pachtman
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 107 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Sixth Circuit precedent has established that 'the critical inquiry is how closely related is the prosecutor's challenged activity to his role as an advocate intimately associated with the judicial phase of the criminal process.'”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage“a prosecutor who assists, directs, or otherwise participates ... in obtaining evidence prior to an indictment undoubtedly is functioning more in his investigative capacity than in his quasi-judicial capacities of deciding which suits to bring and conducting them in court”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. No. 90-6051 · Genzler v. Longanbach“[t]he decision to file a criminal complaint and seek issuance of an arrest warrant are quasi-judicial duties involved in 'initiating a prosecution,' which is protected under Imbler, 424 U.S. at 431.”
3 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.