State v. Lasselle’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ ‘.That whoever shall establish, set up, ■draw or run a lottery in this state, for himself or for others, as an individual, partner, shareholder, officer, manager, or agent, ■shall, upon conviction, be imprisoned, with or without hard labor, not more than one year and fined not exceeding one thousand ■ dollars one-half of such fine to go to the informer securing the conviction, and the other half to go to the city of New Orleans, ■or parish in which the offense is committed.’ “There is no doubt but that the evil intended to be reached by Act No. 169 of 1894, .as demonstrated by the contemporaneous political history of the state, was a lottery ■such as was conducted by the famous Louisiana Lottery Company. However, the statute does not define the word ‘lottery,’ and we .are bound to look elsewhere for its meaning. It seems to have been used in the ordinary •sense, as defined by lexicographers and the common law. As defined by Webster’s New International Dictionary, it means: “ ‘A scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance; especially a scheme by which one or more are distributed by chance among persons who have paid or promised a consideration for a chance to win them, usually as determined by the numbers on tickets as drawn from a lottery wheel.’ “Bishop on Statutory Crimes, § 952: “ ‘Lottery is any scheme whereby one, on paying money or other valuable thing to another, becomes entitled to receive from him such a return in value' or nothing, as some formula of ch”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Barbee