Wilson v. Lynaugh’s Empirical Analysis
878 F.2d 846 · 1989
Citation profile
33 federal appellate · 1 district · 8 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 77 later decisions — most recently March 2025 · most notably Mendoza v. Lynaugh (1993), Jackson v. City of Beaumont Police Department (1992)
33 federal appellate · 1 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. § 1915 · 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 · Gregg v. Georgia · Neitzke v. Williams · Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al. · Rhodes v. Chapman
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 77 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[t]he primary function of § 1915(d) is to deter the filing of baseless lawsuits by in forma pauperis litigants who `would [not otherwise] be deterred by either the actual cost of litigation or the imminence of Rule 11 sanctions.'”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“As our society moves toward a so-called smoke-free environment and new laws are enacted, there may come a time when the 'evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of society' demand a smoke-free environment in a prison setting. However, this is not the case now....”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrencee.g. Smith v. Brown
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.