Spencer v. Lee’s Empirical Analysis
864 F.2d 1376 · 1989
Citation profile
39 federal appellate · 2 district · 5 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 88 later decisions — most recently August 2021 · most notably Gibson v. City of Chicago (1990), Murphy v. Morgan (1990)
39 federal appellate · 2 district · 5 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)) · 42 U.S.C. § 1988
Relies on Conley v. Gibson · Adickes v. S. H. Kress & Co. · Estelle v. Gamble · Fuentes v. Shevin · Lugar v. Edmondson Oil 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 88 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“But, a private commitment is no more state action than a citizen’s arrest, the repossession of chattels, or the ejection of trespassers is. The statutes authorizing or constraining these private activities may or may not be constitutional ... the activities themselves remain private ____”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the relevant provisions of the Mental Health Code were enacted ... to encourage commitments, any more than state repossession laws are passed because states want to encourage creditors to repossess their debtors' goods.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. S.P., a Citizen of Takoma Park, Maryland v. The City of Takoma Park, Maryland Robert Phillips, in His Official Capacity as Chief of the Takoma Park Police Department Brian Rich, Individually and in His Capacity as an Officer of the Takoma Park Police Department Unknown and Unidentified Police Officers of the Takoma Police Department Who Were Present at and Involved in the Incidents Complained of Herein, Individually and in Their Capacity as Officers of the Takoma Park Police Department Washington Adventist Hospital Cyril Hardy James Buxbaum Paul O'Brien Carla Cunningham Marlene Wesley, American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, Inc., Amicus Curiae, Zuckert, Scoutt & Rasenberger, L.L.P., Movant · 813 F. Supp. 1247 - Lewis v. Law-Yone“commitment had not been an exclusively public function, any more than transportation, or the removal of trespassers from one’s property, or the repossession of goods from a defaulting debtor are exclusively public functions — that almost a century before the enactment of the Fourteenth Amendment, private persons were doing what [Plaintiff] contends is the work of the state today even when done by private persons,”
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.