Bowen, Secretary of Health and Human Services, et al. v. Michigan Academy of Family Physicians et al.

Decided June 9, 1986. John Paul Stevens delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 85-225 · 476 U.S. 667 (1986) · Cited 958 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 8–0.

“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.

• Heckler v. Ringer · 466 U.S. 602 (1984)
• Weinberger v. Salfi · 422 U.S. 749 (1975)
• United States v. Erika, Inc. · 456 U.S. 201 (1982)
• Abbott Laboratories v. Gardner · 387 U.S. 136 (1967)
• Schweiker v. McClure · 456 U.S. 188 (1982)
• Block v. Community Nutrition Institute · 467 U.S. 340 (1984)
• Dunlop v. Bachowski · 421 U.S. 560 (1975)
• Barlow v. Collins · 397 U.S. 159 (1970)
• Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe · 401 U.S. 402 (1971)
• Hagans v. Lavine · 415 U.S. 528 (1974)
• Yakus v. United States · 321 U.S. 414 (1944)
• Johnson v. Robison · 415 U.S. 361 (1974)
• Lindahl v. Office of Personnel Management · 470 U.S. 768 (1985)
• Switchmen's Union v. National Mediation Board · 320 U.S. 297 (1943)
• St. Joseph Stock Yards Co. v. United States · 298 U.S. 38 (1936)
• Stark v. Wickard · 321 U.S. 288 (1944)
• Heikkila v. Barber · 345 U.S. 229 (1953)
• Rusk v. Cort · 369 U.S. 367 (1962)
• Morris v. Gressette · 432 U.S. 491 (1977)
• Ludecke v. Watkins · 335 U.S. 160 (1948)

Cited by

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

• Shalala v. Illinois Council on Long Term Care, Inc. · 529 U.S. 1 (2000)
• Schweiker v. Chilicky · 487 U.S. 412 (1988)
• McNary v. Haitian Refugee Center, Inc. · 498 U.S. 479 (1991)
• Thryv, Inc. v. Click-To-Call Technologies, LP · 590 U.S. 45 (2020)
• Gutierrez De Martinez v. Lamagno · 515 U.S. 417 (1995)
• Thunder Basin Coal Co. v. Reich · 510 U.S. 200 (1994)
• Smith v. Berryhill · 587 U.S. 471 (2019)
• Cuozzo Speed Technologies, LLC v. Lee · 579 U.S. 261 (2016)
• MacH Mining, LLC v. Equal Emp't Opportunity Comm'n · 575 U.S. 480 (2015)
• Webster v. Doe · 486 U.S. 592 (1988)
• Franklin v. Massachusetts · 505 U.S. 788 (1992)
• Elgin v. Department of the Treasury · 567 U.S. 1 (2012)
• Traynor v. Turnage · 485 U.S. 535 (1988)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. St. Cyr · 533 U.S. 289 (2001)
• Reno v. American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee · 525 U.S. 471 (1999)
• United States v. Fausto · 484 U.S. 439 (1988)
• Reno v. Catholic Social Services, Inc. · 509 U.S. 43 (1993)
• Brown v. Plata · 563 U.S. 493 (2011)
• International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, & Agricultural Implement Workers v. Brock · 477 U.S. 274 (1986)
• Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo · 603 U.S. 369 (2024)
• Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System v. MCorp Financial, Inc. · 502 U.S. 32 (1991)
• Legal Services Corp. v. Velazquez · 531 U.S. 533 (2001)
• Dalton v. Specter · 511 U.S. 462 (1994)
• Utah v. Evans · 536 U.S. 452 (2002)
• Axon Enterprise, Inc. v. FTC · 598 U.S. 175 (2023)
• Department of State v. Munoz · 602 U.S. 899 (2024)
• PDR Network, LLC v. Carlton Harris Chiropractic, Inc. · 588 U.S. 1 (2019)
• Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors · 603 U.S. 799 (2024)
• Riley v. Bondi · 606 U.S. 259 (2025)
• McLaughlin Chiropractic Associates, Inc. v. McKesson Corp. · 606 U.S. 146 (2025)

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).