Turner v. Upton County’s Empirical Analysis
915 F.2d 133 · 1990
Citation profile
38 federal appellate · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 87 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2019 · most notably McMillian v. Monroe County (1997), Roe v. City of Waterbury (2008)
38 federal appellate · 6 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. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Monell v. Department of Social Services of City of New York · Imbler v. Pachtman · Pembaur v. City of Cincinnati · City of St. Louis v. Praprotnik · Owen v. City of Independence
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 87 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“'Because of the unique structure of county government in Texas ... elected county officials, such as the sheriff ... hold[ ] virtually absolute sway over the particular tasks or areas of responsibility entrusted to him by state statute and is accountable to no one other than the voters for his conduct therein.... Thus, at least in those areas in which he, alone, is the final authority or ultimate repository of county power, his official conduct and decisions must necessarily be considered those of one "whose edicts or acts may fairly be said to represent official policy”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[I]n Texas, the county sheriff is the county's final policymaker in the area of enforcement....”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“When an official's discretionary decisions are constrained by policies not of that official's making, those policies, rather than the subordinate's departures from them, are the act of the municipality. Similarly, when a subordinate's decision is subject to review by the municipality's authorized policymakers, they have retained the authority to measure the official's conduct for conformance with their policies. If the authorized policymakers approve a subordinate's decision and the basis for it, their ratification would be chargeable to the municipality because their decision is final.”
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.