903 F. Supp. 2d 237 - Thomas v. Kelly’s Empirical Analysis
2012
Citation profile
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. · Gault · Addington v. Texas · BMW of North America, Inc. v. Gore · Smith v. Wade
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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Thomas spent approximately forty-five minutes laying chest-down in the snow, handcuffed, while police officers physically and verbally abused him in front of his girlfriend and neighbors. There was evidence — in the form of oral testimony and photographs — that during this unlawful restraint, one of the police officers held him down by stepping on his hair and another by stepping on his legs. Thomas testified that one of the officers kicked snow in his face and then actually kicked him in the face. As Thomas was being dragged away by his hair, he did not know where the officers were taking him and screamed out Marrow’s name “real loud so she could see me or know what is going on.” Thomas testified that he felt “like a piece of trash”— “disrespected, violated, humiliated [and] embarrassed” — “because I never had nothing happen to me like that before and everybody around the neighborhood knows me as a respectable person.” Then, still in view of his girlfriend and neighbors, Thomas was placed in a restraint jacket, strapped to a stretcher, and put into an ambulance. At the hospital, he was sedated despite his protests that he did not want to be injected with any needles. Before he lost consciousness, he was “cold, scared, nervous, shaking ... [and] confused,” and his hand were “hurting and killing” him.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“over-reacted to a rather routine domestic violence dispute between [the plaintiff] and [his girlfriend], and in so doing, falsely treated him as a person who was suffering from a mental illness.”
1 later decision 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.