139 Wis. 2d 492 - Jacobs v. Major’s Empirical Analysis
1987
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 68 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 80 later decisions — most recently May 2023 · most notably 113 Wash. 2d 413 - Southcenter Joint Venture v. National Democratic Policy Committee (1989), Eastwood Mall, Inc. v. Slanco (1994)
2 federal appellate · 68 state decisions — followed in 16 states
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 Perry Education Ass'n v. Perry Local Educators' Ass'n · Hague v. Committee for Industrial Organization · Cooper v. State of California · Marsh v. State of Alabama · Whitney v. People of State of California
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 80 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"(1) The plain meaning of the words in the context used; "(2) The historical analysis of the constitutional debates and of what practices were in existence in 1848, which the court may *Page 300 reasonably presume were also known to the framers of the 1848 constitution, see State ex rel. Zimmerman v. Dammann (1930) 201 Wis. 84 , 88 , 89 , 228 N.W. 593 ; and State ex rel. Comstock [v. Joint School District , 65 Wis. 631 , 27 N.W. 829 (1886)]; and "(3) The earliest interpretation of this section by the legislature as manifested in the first law passed following the adoption of the constitution. Payne v. Racine (1935), 217 Wis. 550 , 259 N.W. 437 ."”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“ARTICLE I ... Free speech; libel. SECTION 3. Every person may freely speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that right, and no laws shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press. In all criminal prosecutions or indictments for libel, the truth may be given in evidence, and if it shall appear to the jury that the matter charged as libelous be true, and was published with good motives and for justifiable ends, the party shall be acquitted; and the jury shall have the right to determine the law and the fact.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“has plain, unambiguous meaning that free speech is protected constitutionally against state interference”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.