Covert v. Harrington’s Empirical Analysis
876 F.2d 751 · 1989
Citation profile
11 federal appellate · 1 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2012
11 federal appellate · 1 district ·
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. § 7138 · 5 U.S.C. § 552A (§ 3 of the Privacy Act of 1974)
Relies on Vandygriff v. Phillips · Hannahville Indian Community v. United States · United States v. McConney · Borders v. Reagan · Wagner v. Director, Federal Emergency Management Agency
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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It is beyond dispute that the government did not comply with [section 552a(e)(3)(C) of the Privacy Act] in this case. The government did not indicate to plaintiffs that the PSQ information would be used for law enforcement purposes; indeed the government explicitly stated that the information would only be used for security clearance purposes .... Under the plain terms of the statute, a collecting agency is under a duty to inform the individuals from whom it is collecting information of the routine uses to which that information may be put. The statute gives the agency no discretion not to discharge this duty.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“In any suit brought under the provisions of subsection (g)(1)(C) or (D) of this section in which the court determines that the agency acted in a manner which was intentional or willful, the United States shall be liable to the individual in an amount equal to the sum of— (A) actual damages sustained by the individual as a result of the refusal or failure, but in no case shall a person entitled to recovery receive less than the sum of $1,000; and (B) the costs of the action together with reasonable attorney fees as determined by the court.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“... any item, collection, or grouping of information about an individual that is maintained by an agency, including, but not limited to, his education, financial transactions, medical history, and criminal or employment history and that contains his name, or the identifying number, symbol, or other identifying particular assigned to the individual, such as a finger or voice print or a photograph.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.