Budinich v. Becton Dickinson & Co.

Decided May 23, 1988. Antonin Scalia delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 87-283 · 486 U.S. 196 (1988) · Cited 1,283 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 9–0.

“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.

• White v. New Hampshire Department of Employment Security · 455 U.S. 445 (1982)
• Boeing Co. v. Van Gemert · 444 U.S. 472 (1980)
• Erie Railroad v. Tompkins · 304 U.S. 64 (1938)
• Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · 408 U.S. 564 (1972)
• Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp. · 337 U.S. 541 (1949)
• Hanna v. Plumer · 380 U.S. 460 (1965)
• Prima Paint Corp. v. Flood & Conklin Mfg. Co. · 388 U.S. 395 (1967)
• Catlin v. United States · 324 U.S. 229 (1945)
• United States v. Robinson · 361 U.S. 220 (1960)
• Brown Shoe Co. v. United States · 370 U.S. 294 (1962)
• Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Risjord · 449 U.S. 368 (1981)
• Sprague v. Ticonic National Bank · 307 U.S. 161 (1939)
• Liberty Mutual Insurance v. Wetzel · 424 U.S. 737 (1976)
• Marek v. Chesny · 473 U.S. 1 (1985)
• Burlington Northern Railroad v. Woods · 480 U.S. 1 (1987)
• Dickinson v. Petroleum Conversion Corp. · 338 U.S. 507 (1950)
• Radio Station Wow, Inc. v. Johnson · 326 U.S. 120 (1945)
• Republic Natural Gas Co. v. Oklahoma · 334 U.S. 62 (1948)

Cited by

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

• Ray Haluch Gravel Co. v. Cent. Pension Fund of the Int'l Union of Operating Eng'rs & Participating Emp'rs · 571 U.S. 177 (2014)
• Osterneck v. Ernst & Whinney · 489 U.S. 169 (1989)
• Banister v. Davis · 590 U.S. 504 (2020)
• Stewart Organization, Inc. v. Ricoh Corp. · 487 U.S. 22 (1988)
• Eberhart v. United States · 546 U.S. 12 (2005)
• BP p.l.c. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore · 593 U.S. 230 (2021)
• Federal Election Commission v. NRA Political Victory Fund · 513 U.S. 88 (1994)
• Nutraceutical Corp. v. Lambert · 586 U.S. 188 (2019)

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).