Minker v. Baltimore Annual Conference of United Methodist Church’s Empirical Analysis
894 F.2d 1354 · 1990
Citation profile
40 federal appellate · 10 district · 60 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 145 later decisions — most recently April 2025 · most notably Lashawn A. v. Barry (1996), Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Catholic University of America (1996)
40 federal appellate · 10 district · 60 state decisions — followed in 23 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
Applies 28 U.S.C. § 1331 · 28 U.S.C. § 1332 (Class Action Fairness Act of 2005) · 28 U.S.C. § 1343 · 28 U.S.C. § 1631 · 28 U.S.C. § 292 · 29 U.S.C. § 621 (§ 2 of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967)
Relies on United Mine Workers of America v. Gibbs · Wisconsin v. Yoder · Jenkins v. McKeithen · Mahan & Rowsey, Inc. v. Oklahoma Natural Gas · Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese for United States and Canada v. Milivojevich
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 145 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[a]s a theoretical matter, the issue of breach of contract can be adduced by a fairly direct inquiry into whether [the minister's] superintendent promised him a more suitable congregation, whether [the minister] gave consideration in exchange for that promise, and whether such congregations became available but were not offered to [him].”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[D]etermination of whose voice speaks for the church is per se a religious matter. We cannot imagine an area of inquiry less suited to a temporal court for decision[.]”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[D]etermination of whose voice speaks for the church is per se a religious matter.”
5 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.