Sullivan v. Meyer’s Empirical Analysis
91 F.2d 301 · 1937
Citation profile
14 federal appellate · 4 district · 8 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 28 later decisions — most recently February 1989 · most notably Howard University v. Best (1984), Afro-American Publishing Co. v. Jaffe (1966)
14 federal appellate · 4 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
Relies on Peck v. Tribune Co. · Washington Post Co. v. Chaloner · Commercial Pub. Co. v. Smith
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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“* * * 'A publication claimed to be defamatory must be read and construed in the sense in which the readers to whom it is addressed would ordinarily understand it. So the whole item, including display lines, should be read and construed together, and its meaning and signification thus determined. When thus read, if its meaning is so unambiguous as to reasonably bear but one interpretation, it is for the judge to say whether that signification is defamatory or not.'”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“* * * At all events, the situation was such that legitimate criticism or comment was justifiable. The article complained of goes no farther.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.