Smart v. Ball State University’s Empirical Analysis
89 F.3d 437 · 1996
Citation profile
146 federal appellate · 60 district · 16 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 401 later decisions — most recently April 2025 · most notably Richardson v. New York State Department of Correctional Service (1999), Regina C. Brown, v. Kenneth D. Brody, Chairman, Export-Import Bank of the United States, (1999)
146 federal appellate · 60 district · 16 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. § 2000E (§ 704 of the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964)
Relies on McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green · Crady v. Liberty National Bank & Trust Co. · Collins v. State · Flaherty v. Gas Research Institute
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 401 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“not everything that makes an employee unhappy is an actionable adverse action.”
44 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[i]n some cases, for example when an employee is fired, or suffers a reduction in benefits or pay, it is clear that an employee has been the victim of an adverse employment action. But an employment action does not have to be so easily quantified to be considered adverse for our purposes. ‘Adverse job action is not limited solely to loss or reduction of pay or monetary benefits. It can encompass other forms of adversity as well.’”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[n]o person shall discriminate against any individual because such individual has opposed any act or practice made unlawful by this chapter or because such individual made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this chapter.”
3 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.