Cain v. Hearst Corp.’s Empirical Analysis
1994
Citation profile
10 federal appellate · 69 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 102 later decisions — most recently September 2024 · most notably Welling v. Weinfeld (2007), Bentley v. Bunton (2002)
10 federal appellate · 69 state decisions — followed in 11 states
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
Relies on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. · Chaplinsky v. State of New Hampshire · Garrison v. State of Louisiana · Baggett v. Bullitt
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 102 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[Flalse light remains the least-recognized and most controversial aspect of invasion of privacy.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[qjualified privileges against defamation exist at common law when a communication is made in good faith and the author, the recipient or a third person, or one of their family members, has an interest that is sufficiently affected by the communication. See Holloway v. Texas Medical Ass’n, 757 S.W.2d 810, 813 (Tex.App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1988, writ denied). A communication may also be conditionally privileged if it affects an important public interest. See generally Bruce W. Sanford, Libel and Privacy, at 701-94.1 (collecting libel privilege statutes from all fifty states).”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“A libel is a defamation expressed in written or other graphic form that tends to ... injure a living person’s reputation and thereby expose the person to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule, or financial injury or to impeach any person’s honesty, integrity, virtue or reputation or to publish the natural defects of anyone and thereby expose the person to public hatred, ridicule, or financial injury.”
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.