15 Cal. 3d 461 - Johnson v. Hamilton’s Empirical Analysis
1975
Citation profile
4 federal appellate · 112 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 119 later decisions — most recently October 2016 · most notably 43 Cal. 3d 1002 - People v. Woodhead (1987), 54 Cal. 3d 492 - Legislature v. Eu (1991)
4 federal appellate · 112 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 San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez · Shapiro v. Thompson · Sosna v. Iowa · Dunn v. Blumstein · Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections Butts
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 119 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In terms of the education of the candidate, the argument that an extended residence is necessary for an understanding of local issues, while perhaps appealing in the abstract, nonetheless ignores the hard realities bearing on the relationship of candidate and issue. The knowledge, appreciation, and comprehension of the public issues and problems which a candidate ... possesses ... are so much the product of the variables of motivation, intelligence, maturity, experience, opportunity, and desire as to make any flat rule of physical residence appear immediately suspect and arbitrary. The congeries of individual capacities for observation, study, exposure, and growth are simply so different as to be inhospitable to a rigid fixed qualification tied to residence. Similarly, the public’s need for education and information about a candidate are [sic] not served by a proscription so imperious as one based upon extended physical presence alone. The advent of mass media ... , the easy mobility of persons and image, and the increasing use of forums, debates, and voter education programs dilute the expectancy that voter evaluation and education can best be served by an arbitrary residence requirement of the candidate, 125 Cal. Rptr. at 134 , 541 P.2d at 886 .”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“[I]t is difficult to conceive of principles more central to a political democracy than the free and untrammelled access of the public to the ballot box and the reciprocal right of candidates to seek the public's suffrage. It follows, accordingly, that we examine with a close and questioning attention every intrusion, subtle or direct, which impairs or affects the unconditional exercise of these prerogatives.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“One disturbing phenomenon of the current political scene of which we may take judicial notice is an apparent substantial increase in voter apathy. The erosion and decay caused by the acid of indifference, unconcern, and lack of participation, if prolonged, may pose a danger to the democratic institutions, far more subtle and invidious than any other.”
1 later decision 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.