Smith v. Boyd’s Empirical Analysis
945 F.2d 1041 · 1991
Citation profile
39 federal appellate · 9 district · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 83 later decisions — most recently November 2023 · most notably Dulany v. Carnahan (1997), Wyatt v. City of Boston (1994)
39 federal appellate · 9 district · 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 Neitzke v. Williams · Halas v. Department of Energy · Quantum Chemical Corp. v. Pratt · Universal Cooperatives, Inc. v. FCX, Inc. · Martin v. Sargent
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 83 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“We have held ... that even where a district court exercises its power to sua sponte dismiss a claim (without any pending motion to dismiss), the court’s failure to give the plaintiff notice and an opportunity to respond before doing so is not reversible error if “it is patently obvious the plaintiff could not prevail based on the facts alleged in the complaint.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“district court sua sponte may dismiss a complaint under Rule 12(b)(6) as long as the dismissal does not precede service of process”
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.