The Most Cited Cases in Administrative Law
posted by David Zaring
Some empirical research is more blog-worthy than essay-worthy. Entering citations into Westlaw’s Allfeds database over lunch may be an example.
Others have observed that Chevron v. NRDC may become the most cited case of any kind by federal courts, displacing Erie v. Thompkins. It has garnered 7909 citations, far ahead of the next most cited case in administrative law, NLRB v. Universal Camera Corp. (substantial evidence), with 4801 citations. Following that, it’s a tight race between Matthews v. Eldridge (due process), with 4293 citations, and Citizens to Preserve Overton Park v. Volpe (hard look), with 4227. The scope-of-judicial-review case that has underperformed is MVMA v. State Farm (arbitrary and capricious), with 2276 citations, less than the sort of quaint Goldberg v. Kelly’s (due process) 2377 citations and the narrow-issue-area Abbott Labs v. Gardner’s (ripeness) 2910 citations. Chevron has also stolen a lot of Vermont Yankee v. NRDC’s (rulemaking) glory – it has 1059 citations. But my not-so-dark-horse candidate for the silver medal in the future is Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife (standing) with 3775 cites. Not too bad for a case from 1992, and I suspect that the government has installed a shift-F4 macro for the case on every one of its attorneys’ computers.
March 29, 2006 at 1:14 pm
Posted in: Empirical Analysis of Law
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Responses (2)
max Baumhefner - April 5, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Where’d you get the figures for the number of citations?
da - April 6, 2008 at 11:27 am
westlaw’s allfeds database.
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