Pearson v. Fair’s Empirical Analysis
980 F.2d 37 · 1992
Citation profile
17 federal appellate · 18 district · 3 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 39 later decisions — most recently July 2022 · most notably Maine School Administrative District No. 35 v. Mr. & Mrs. R. (2003), Brewster v. Dukakis (1993)
17 federal appellate · 18 district · 3 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)) · 42 U.S.C. § 1988
Relies on Hensley v. Eckerhart · Texas State Teachers Ass'n v. Garland Independent School District · City of Riverside v. Rivera · United Families of America v. Kendrick · Andrijevic v. Kelleran
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 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The plaintiff must obtain an enforceable judgment against the defendant from whom fees are sought, or comparable relief through a consent decree or settlement. Whatever relief the plaintiff secures must directly benefit him at the time of the judgment or settlement. Otherwise the judgment or settlement cannot be said to “affec[t] the behavior of the defendant toward the plaintiff.” Only under these circumstances can civil rights litigation effect “the material alteration of the legal relationship of the parties ” and thereby transform the plaintiff into a prevailing party.”
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.