Fennell v. First Step Designs, Ltd.’s Empirical Analysis
83 F.3d 526 · 1996
Citation profile
46 federal appellate · 119 district · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 185 later decisions — most recently July 2021 · most notably Calero-Cerezo v. United States Department of Justice (2004), Mills v. Maine (1997)
46 federal appellate · 119 district · 6 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. § 2000E (§ 704 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964)
Relies on Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green · St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks · Mesnick v. General Electric Co.
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 185 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“On summary judgment, the need to order the presentation of proof is largely obviated, and a court may often dispense with strict attention to the burden-shifting framework, focusing instead on whether the evidence as a whole is sufficient to make out a jury question as to pretext and discriminatory animus.”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[i]f the defendant does so, the ultimate burden falls on the plaintiff to show that the proffered legitimate reason is in fact a pretext and that the job action was the result of the defendant’s retaliatory animus.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“(1) [s]he engaged in activity protected by the [M]WPA; (2)[s]he experienced an adverse employment action; and (3) a causal connection existed between the protected activity and the adverse employment action.”
2 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.