Bell v. Strange’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 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 1 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““I write ... to express my concern ... with legislative proposals, allegedly proposed to the people pursuant to Art. XVIII, § 284, Ala. Const.1901, to amend many sections of the Alabama Constitution by the validation of a single amendment. ... “As Chief Justice Torbert noted in his special concurrence in State v. Manley, 441 So.2d 864 (Ala.1983): “‘There is a difference between the power of the Legislature to enact statutes and the power to change the Constitution. Jones v. McDade, 200 Ala. 230 , 75 So. 988 (1917). In Bourbon v. Governor of Maryland, 258 Md. 252, 257-58 , 265 A.2d 477, 480 (1970), the Maryland Court of Appeals, considering the legislature’s role in initiating constitutional change, wrote: “ ‘ “[T]he legislature does not exercise its ordinary legislative power or any sovereignty of the people that has been entrusted to it but acts under a limited power which the people have conferred upon it and which with equal propriety and appropriateness might have been conferred upon either house, the governor, a special commission or other body or tribunal. In proposing amendment of the Constitution the legislature does not have the plenary powers it has in enacting laws but only the powers specifically delegated to it.” ‘“(Citations omitted). The Legislature has plenary power with respect to statutory matters, but only a limited power as to constitutional matters. Johnson v. Craft, [ 205 Ala. 386 , 87 So.375 (1921) ]; Opinion of the Justices [No. 92], 252 Ala. 89 , 39 S”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Opinion of the Justices

2. ““The people, through the Alabama Constitution, have entrusted to the legislature two powers in regard to amending or changing the constitution: 1) to propose an amendment to the people for validation by their vote, pursuant to either § 284 or Art. XVIII, § 284.01, Ala. Const.1901, and 2) to call a constitutional convention, pursuant to § 286, which will commence only upon a majority vote of the people. The effect of an article-by-article amendment approach is the creation of a third legislative power in regard to changing the constitution. This is an enlargement of legislative power in contravention of Art. I, § 2, Ala. Const.1901, which provides, in pertinent part: ‘That all political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit....”’”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Opinion of the Justices