What Circuits Have The Most (and Least) Influence On The Sixth Circuit?

About a decade ago, this blog found that Sixth Circuit judges cited the Second, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits more often than any other circuit. When we controlled for the number of opinions, we found that opinions from the First, Seventh, Tenth and D.C. Circuits were three times more likely to be cited than opinions from other circuits. After our recent post showing that some circuits issue a far higher percentage of published opinions than others, we decided to take another look at what circuits are the most influential in Sixth Circuit opinions over the last three years. The results were surprising.

Despite issuing the lowest number of published opinions per judge, the Third Circuit was cited more than any other circuit. The Second Circuit and D.C. Circuits were next, and then the First and Tenth Circuits. Then there is a big drop off in citations to the Seventh and Eight Circuits, and another large drop to the Fourth, Fifth, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits. The raw