Browning v. Gray’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 state decisions

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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““We think the requirement of the statute that officers and clerks of elections shall take the oaths of office prescribed is a mandatory provision intended to secure the purity of the ballot by permitting all legal voters to vote, and preventing illegal voters from voting, and by securing a correct count of the ballots as cast. But a reasonable enforcement and application of the statute should always be given, and hence when it affirmatively appears that no injury was done, either to the voters or to the candidates before the voters, failure to take and subscribe the oath by the officers of the election is a mere irregularity for which the election will not be invalidated. State ex rel. [Gouge] v. Burrow, 119 Tenn. 376 , 104 S. W. 526 , 14 Ann. Cas. 809. The contrary rule would defeat the will of the majority. It would confer the office upon the minority candidate and thus subvert the purpose for which the election was held. In addition, it would confer upon the officers holding the election power to defeat the election entirely, and thereby enforce their arbitrary will upon the community. This would be a perversion of the purposes of an election and a violation of the rule laid down by this court in Barry v. Lauck, supra [ 45 Tenn. 588 ]. The legislature did not intend to confer such power upon the officers holding the election. Its purpose was to secure the purity of the ballot and to guarantee the enforcement of the will of a majority of the votes. As this has been done, ac”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Summitt v. Russell

2. ““It would confer upon the officers holding the election power to defeat the election entirely, and thereby enforce their arbitrary will upon the community. This would be a perversion of the purposes of an election . . .””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Peeler v. State ex rel. Beasley