Falwell v. Flynt’s Empirical Analysis
805 F.2d 484 · 1986
Citation profile
8 federal appellate · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 13 later decisions — most recently August 2011
8 federal appellate · 3 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
Relies on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. · Miller v. California · New York v. Ferber · Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc.
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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Much of the comment went overboard, and much would be considered libelous today. For all its clatter and hubbub, however, it has not undermined this country’s profound respect for presidents and priests. But it has enhanced political debate. Nothing is more thoroughly democratic than to have the high-and-mighty lampooned and spoofed. An observant electorate may also gain by watching the reactions of objects of satiric comment, noting those who take themselves seriously and those whose self-perspective is somewhat more relaxed.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“Speech such as the Hustler publication serves in the [marketplace of ideas] only to discredit the speaker. It does not persuade, and it detracts not one whit from [Dworkin’s] reputation. Vicious and gratuitously personal attacks may well attract support and sympathy for their targets.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“Why, when the court has freely granted rehearings in banc in recent years in many cases less significant, it declines to do so here, is inexplicable.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.