Freeman v. Package Machinery Co.’s Empirical Analysis
865 F.2d 1331 · 1988
Citation profile
309 federal appellate · 87 district · 8 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 476 later decisions — most recently February 2025 · most notably United States v. Zannino (1990), Mesnick v. General Electric Co. (1991)
309 federal appellate · 87 district · 8 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. § 1821 · 28 U.S.C. § 1920 · 29 U.S.C. § 216 · 29 U.S.C. § 621 (§ 2 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967) · 29 U.S.C. § 626 (§ 7 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967) · 33 U.S.C. § 1365 · 42 U.S.C. § 1988
Relies on McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green · Hensley v. Eckerhart · International Brotherhood of Teamsters v. United States · Alyeska Pipeline Service Company v. Wilderness Society · Christiansburg Garment Co. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
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 476 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Only rarely--and in extraordinarily compelling circumstances--will we, from the vista of a cold appellate record, reverse a district court's on-the-spot judgment concerning the relative weighing of probative value and unfair effect.”
59 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“burden of proving that his years were the determinative factor in his discharge, that is, that he would not have been fired but for his age.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a plaintiff is entitled to only one full recovery, no matter how many legal grounds may support the verdict,”
9 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.