Bell Atlantic Corporation, et al. v. William Twombly, et al.

Decided May 21, 2007. David Hackett Souter delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 05-1126 · 550 U.S. 544 (2007) · Cited 146,720 times

We don’t yet publish a summary of this opinion — read the official text below for the Court’s holding and reasoning.

How the Justices voted

Decided 7–2.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Conley v. Gibson · 355 U.S. 41 (1957)
• Swierkiewicz v. Sorema N. A. · 534 U.S. 506 (2002)
• Dura Pharmaceuticals, Inc. v. Broudo · 544 U.S. 336 (2005)
• Scheuer v. Rhodes · 416 U.S. 232 (1974)
• Associated General Contractors of California, Inc. v. California State Council of Carpenters · 459 U.S. 519 (1983)
• Theatre Enterprises, Inc. v. Paramount Film Distributing Corp. · 346 U.S. 537 (1954)
• Leatherman v. Tarrant County Narcotics Intelligence and Coordination Unit · 507 U.S. 163 (1993)
• Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corporation · 475 U.S. 574 (1986)
• Blue Chip Stamps v. Manor Drug Stores · 421 U.S. 723 (1975)
• Crawford-El v. Britton · 523 U.S. 574 (1998)
• Verizon Communications Inc. v. Law Offices of Curtis v. Trinko, LLP · 540 U.S. 398 (2004)
• McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green · 411 U.S. 792 (1973)
• Hospital Building Co. v. Trustees of Rex Hospital · 425 U.S. 738 (1976)
• Monsanto Co. v. Spray-Rite Service Corp. · 465 U.S. 752 (1984)
• Zuni Public School District No. 89 v. Department of Education · 550 U.S. 81 (2007)
• Poller v. Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc. · 368 U.S. 464 (1962)
• Allen v. Wright · 468 U.S. 737 (1984)
• Verizon Communications Inc. v. Federal Communications Commission · 535 U.S. 467 (2002)
• Estelle v. Gamble · 429 U.S. 97 (1976)
• Haines v. Kerner · 404 U.S. 519 (1972)
• Neitzke v. Williams · 490 U.S. 319 (1989)
• Papasan v. Allain · 478 U.S. 265 (1986)
• Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill · 470 U.S. 532 (1985)
• Hishon v. King & Spalding · 467 U.S. 69 (1984)
• Hickman v. Taylor · 329 U.S. 495 (1947)
• General Telephone Co. of Southwest v. Falcon · 457 U.S. 147 (1982)
• Simon v. Eastern Kentucky Welfare Rights Organization · 426 U.S. 26 (1976)
• Hughes v. Rowe · 449 U.S. 5 (1980)
• Jenkins v. McKeithen · 395 U.S. 411 (1969)
• H. J. Inc. v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Co. · 492 U.S. 229 (1989)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Ashcroft v. Iqbal · 556 U.S. 662 (2009)
• Erickson v. Pardus · 551 U.S. 89 (2007)
• Wood v. Moss · 572 U.S. 744 (2014)
• Pacific Bell Telephone Co. v. Linkline Communications, Inc. · 555 U.S. 438 (2009)
• National Pork Producers Council v. Ross · 598 U.S. 356 (2023)
• Ziglar v. Abbasi · 582 U.S. 120 (2017)
• F.T.C. v. Actavis, Inc. · 570 U.S. 136 (2013)
• Matrixx Initiatives, Inc. v. Siracusano · 563 U.S. 27 (2011)
• FCC v. Consumers' Research · 606 U.S. 656 (2025)
• Shapiro v. McManus · 577 U.S. 39 (2015)
• Hughes v. Northwestern Univ. · 595 U.S. 170 (2022)
• National Rifle Association of America v. Vullo · 602 U.S. 175 (2024)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: the U.S. Reports via govinfo.gov; authoring Justice and vote lineup from the Supreme Court Database (Washington University). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).