8 canonical passages across 7 cases, quoted by 159 opinions in total. These passages cluster together because the same opinions keep quoting them side by side — they state parts of one doctrine. The anchor passage is from Elder-Keep v. Aksamit.
| # | Case | Flag | Canonical passage | Citers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elder-Keep v. Aksamit Anchor | green | “a suit against a public official in his official capacity is actually a suit against the entity for which the official is an agent.” | 68 |
| 2 | Frank R. Owens v. Scott County Jail Richard D. Huff, Major | green | “ounty jails are not legal entities amenable to suit.” | 22 |
| 3 | Hafer v. Melo | green | “a suit against a public official in his official capacity is actually a suit against the entity for which the official is an agent” | 17 |
| 4 | Russell v. Hennepin County | green | “a policy is a deliberate choice to follow a course of action made from among various alternatives by the official or officials responsible . . . for establishing final policy with respect to the subject matter in question” | 17 |
| 5 | Patrick Laganiere v. The County of Olmsted | green | “the eighth amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment protects prisoners from deliberate indifference to serious medical needs.” | 7 |
| 6 | Cecil Edwards, Jr. v. Karl Byrd | green | “therefore, if the use of force in this case would have violated the eighth amendment had the plaintiffs been prisoners, that conduct necessarily violated the plaintiffs' rights under the fourteenth amendment.” | 6 |
| 7 | Parrish v. Luckie | green | “suits against persons in their official capacity are just another method of filing suit against the entity. a plaintiff seeking damages in an official-capacity suit is seeking a judgment against the entity.” | 5 |
A red or yellow flag on a member means the underlying case has negative treatment — for those, check the case page before relying on the passage.