Watterson v. Page’s Empirical Analysis
987 F.2d 1 · 1993
Citation profile
99 federal appellate · 432 district · 25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 656 later decisions — most recently April 2025 · most notably In re Burlington Coat Factory Securities Litigation (1997), Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation v. White Consolidated Industries Inc Ct (1993)
99 federal appellate · 432 district · 25 state decisions — followed in 11 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 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on Santosky v. Kramer · Daniels v. Williams · Paul v. Davis · Stanley v. Illinois · Carnegie v. United States
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 656 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“sufficiently referred to in the complaint.”
50 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he right to family integrity clearly does not include a constitutional right to be free from child abuse investigations.”
13 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he problem that arises when a court reviews statements extraneous to a complaint generally is the lack of notice to the plaintiff ... Where plaintiff has actual notice ... and has relied upon these documents in framing the complaint the necessity of translating a Rule 12(b)(6) motion into one under Rule 56 is largely dissipated.”
6 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.