State v. Cantwell’s Empirical Analysis
1939
Citation profile
2 district · 25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently July 2017 · most notably Cantwell v. State of Connecticut (1940), 42 Ala. App. 149 - Abernathy v. State (1962)
2 district · 25 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Lovell v. City of Griffin · State v. Schleifer · State v. Avery · Delk v. Commonwealth · State v. Quinlan
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 31 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[t]he doing of acts or the use of language which, under circumstances of which the person is or should be aware, are calculated or likely to provoke another person or other persons to acts of immediate violence may constitute a breach of the peace. ... The effect or tendency of words or conduct depends largely upon the circumstances, and is a question of fact. ... It is apparent from the facts found that the playing for audition by loyal Catholics of a record violently attacking their religion and church could well be found to constitute the offense charged, and they warrant finding [of] guilty.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Baccala“Jesse Cantwell stopped John Ganley and John Cafferty, both of whom are Catholics, and receiv[ed] permission [to play a] phonograph record ... which attacked that religion and church. On hearing it, Ganley felt like hitting Cantwell and told him to take his bag and victrola and be on his way. If he had remained he might have received physical violence. Cafferty's mental reaction was to put Jesse [Cantwell] off the street and he warned him that he had better get off before something happened to him.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Baccala“one will not be permitted to commit a breach of the peace, under the guise of preaching the gospel.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Baccala
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.