Thornburgh, Attorney General of the United States, et al. v. Abbott et al.

Decided May 15, 1989. Harry Andrew Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 87-1344 · 490 U.S. 401 (1989) · Cited 1,967 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 6–3.

“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.

• Procunier v. Martinez · 416 U.S. 396 (1974)
• Turner v. Safley · 482 U.S. 78 (1987)
• Pell v. Procunier · 417 U.S. 817 (1974)
• Jones v. North Carolina Prisoners' Labor Union, Inc. · 433 U.S. 119 (1977)
• Bell v. Wolfish · 441 U.S. 520 (1979)
• O'Lone v. Estate of Shabazz · 482 U.S. 342 (1987)
• Block v. Rutherford · 468 U.S. 576 (1984)
• New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · 376 U.S. 254 (1964)
• Elrod v. Burns · 427 U.S. 347 (1976)
• Carlson v. Green · 446 U.S. 14 (1980)
• Thornhill v. Alabama · 310 U.S. 88 (1940)
• Branzburg v. Hayes · 408 U.S. 665 (1972)
• Garrison v. Louisiana · 379 U.S. 64 (1964)
• First Nat. Bank of Boston v. Bellotti · 435 U.S. 765 (1978)
• Runyon v. McCrary · 427 U.S. 160 (1976)
• Brandenburg v. Ohio · 395 U.S. 444 (1969)
• Herbert v. Lando · 441 U.S. 153 (1979)
• Hustler Magazine, Inc. v. Falwell · 485 U.S. 46 (1988)
• Zurcher v. Stanford Daily · 436 U.S. 547 (1978)
• Martin v. City of Struthers · 319 U.S. 141 (1943)
• Houchins v. KQED, Inc. · 438 U.S. 1 (1978)

Cited by

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

• Johnson v. California · 543 U.S. 499 (2005)
• Lewis v. Casey · 518 U.S. 343 (1996)
• Shaw v. Murphy · 532 U.S. 223 (2001)
• Payne v. Tennessee · 501 U.S. 808 (1991)
• Pennsylvania Department of Corrections v. Yeskey · 524 U.S. 206 (1998)
• Rufo v. Inmates of Suffolk County Jail · 502 U.S. 367 (1992)
• Overton v. Bazzetta · 539 U.S. 126 (2003)
• Beard v. Banks · 548 U.S. 521 (2006)
• District Attorney's Office for the Third Judicial District v. Osborne · 557 U.S. 52 (2009)
• Walker v. Martin · 562 U.S. 307 (2011)
• Webster v. Reproductive Health Services · 492 U.S. 490 (1989)

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).