Riker v. Lemmon’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 1 state decisions

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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “(1) whether a valid, rational connection exists between the regulation and a legitimate government interest behind the rule; (2) whether there are alternative means of exercising the right in question; (3) what impact accommodation of the asserted constitutional right would have on guards, other inmates, and on the allocation of prison resources; and (4) what easy alternatives exist to the regulation because, although the regulation need not satisfy a least restrictive alternatives test, the existence of obvious alternatives may be evidence that the regulation is not reasonable.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Nigl v. Litscher

2. “must accord substantial deference to the professional judgment of prison administrators, who bear a significant responsibility for defining the legitimate goals of a corrections system and for determining the most appropriate means to accomplish them.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Nigl v. Litscher

3. “Although the burden of persuasion is on the prisoner to disprove the validity of a regulation, prison officials must still articulate their legitimate governmental interest in the regulation and provide some evidence supporting their concern.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Nigl v. Litscher