Merrell v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis
807 F.2d 776 · 1986
Citation profile
14 federal appellate · 5 district · 1 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently February 2025 · most notably Douglas County v. Babbitt (1995), Friends of Southeast's Future v. Morrison (1998)
14 federal appellate · 5 district · 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 28 U.S.C. § 1331 · 42 U.S.C. § 4321 (§ 2 of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969) · 42 U.S.C. § 4332 (§ 102 of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969) · 5 U.S.C. § 552 (Freedom of Information Act) · 5 U.S.C. § 702 · 7 U.S.C. § 136 (Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act of 1972) · 7 U.S.C. § 136A · 7 U.S.C. § 136D
Relies on Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · United States v. Students Challenging Regulatory Agency Procedures (SCRAP) · National Labor Relations Board v. Bell Aerospace Co. · Ruckelshaus v. Monsanto Co. · Commodity Futures Trading Commission v. Schor
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 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(C) include in every recommendation or report on proposals for legislation and other major Federal actions significantly affecting the quality of the human environment, a detailed statement by the responsible official on- (i) the environmental impact of the proposed action, (ii) any adverse environmental effects which cannot be avoided should the proposal be implemented, (in) alternatives to the proposed action, (iv) the relationship between local short-term uses of man’s environment and the maintenance and enhancement of long-term productivity, and (v) any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources which would be involved in the proposed action should it be implemented.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a procedural obligation designed to assure that agencies give proper consideration to the environmental consequences of their actions.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“NEPA must give way ... '[as] NEPA was not intended to repeal by implication any other statute.'”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.