Mitchum v. Foster’s Empirical Analysis
1972
Citation profile
211 federal appellate · 116 district · 19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 779 later decisions (53 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2021 · most notably Jackson v. Virginia (1979), Coleman v. Thompson (1991)
211 federal appellate · 116 district · 19 state decisions — followed in 12 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. § 1253 · 28 U.S.C. § 1331 · 28 U.S.C. § 1343 · 28 U.S.C. § 2251 (Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996) · 28 U.S.C. § 2283 · 28 U.S.C. § 2361 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Younger v. Harris · Ex Parte: Edward T Young · Monroe v. Pape · Dombrowski v. Pfister · Shelley v. Kraemer
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 779 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“A court of the United States may not grant an injunction to stay proceedings in a State court except as expressly authorized by Act of Congress, or where necessary in aid of its jurisdiction, or to protect or effectuate its judgments.”
54 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he very purpose of Sec. 1983 was to interpose the federal courts between the States and the people, as guardians of the people's federal rights--to protect the people from unconstitutional action under color of state law, 'whether that action be executive, legislative, or judicial.'”
48 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“whether an Act of Congress, clearly creating a federal right or remedy enforceable in a federal court of equity, could be given its intended scope only by the stay of a state court proceeding.”
33 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.