A system and method for propagating classification decisions is provided. Text marked within one or more unclassified documents that is determined to be responsive to a predetermined issue is received from a user. The unclassified documents are selected from a corpus. A search query is generated from the responsive text. Same result documents are identified by applying inclusive search parameters to the query, applying the search query to the corpus, and identifying the documents that satisfy the query. Similar result documents are identified by adjusting a breadth of the query by applying less inclusive search parameters and identifying documents from the corpus that satisfy the query. A responsive classification code is automatically assigned to each same result document for classification as responsive documents. The similar documents are provided to the user. A responsive classification decision is received form the user for classification as the responsive documents.