Bradley v. Fisher’s Empirical Analysis
80 U.S. 335 · 1871
Citation profile
513 federal appellate · 129 district · 220 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,290 later decisions (35 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2023 · most notably Scheuer v. Rhodes (1974), Mitchell v. Forsyth (1985)
513 federal appellate · 129 district · 220 state decisions — followed in 48 states
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
Relies on Pargoud v. United States
Cited together with Pierson v. Ray · Stump v. Sparkman · Pargoud v. United States · Imbler v. Pachtman · Tenney v. Brandhove
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 1,290 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a general principle of the highest importance to the proper administration of justice that a judicial officer, in exercising the authority vested in him, [should] be free to act upon his own convictions, without apprehension of personal consequences to himself.”
23 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“* * * (J)udges of courts of superior or general jurisdiction are not liable to civil actions for their judicial acts, even when such acts are in excess of their jurisdiction, and are alleged to have been done maliciously or corruptly. * * * *”
22 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Spalding v. Vilas · Dean v. Shirer““Judges of courts of record of superior or general jurisdiction are not liable to civil actions for tlicir judicial acts, even when such acts are in excess of their jurisdiction, and are alleged to have been done maliciously or corruptly. A distinction as to their liability is made between acts done by them in excess of their jurisdiction and acts done by them in the clear absence of all jurisdiction over the subject-matter.””
12 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.