Thompkins v. Belt’s Empirical Analysis
828 F.2d 298 · 1987
Citation profile
54 federal appellate · 4 district · 7 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 230 later decisions — most recently February 2025 · most notably Doe v. Taylor Independent School District (1994), Redman v. County of San Diego (1991)
54 federal appellate · 4 district · 7 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 Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. · Estelle v. Gamble · Gregg v. Georgia · Daniels v. Williams
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 230 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“itself is a repudiation of constitutional rights”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a sufficient causal connection between [their] wrongful conduct and the constitutional violation.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Under section 1983, supervisory officials are not liable for the actions of subordinates on any theory of vicarious liability.”
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.