Plumley v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

29 federal appellate · 24 district · 132 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 365 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It will be observed that the statute of Massachusetts which Is alleged to be repugnant to the commerce clause of the Constitution does not prohibit the manufacture or sale of all oleomargarine, but only such as is colored in imitation of yellow butter produced from pure unadulterated milk or cream of such milk. , If free from coloration or ingredient that ‘causes it to look like butter,’ the right to sell it ‘in a separate and distinct form, and in such manner as will advise the consumer of its real character,’ is neither restricted nor prohibited. It appears, in this case, that oleomargarine, in its natural condition, is of ‘a light-yellowish color,’ and that the article sold by the accused was artificially colored ‘in imitation of yellow butter.’ Now, the real object of coloring oleomargarine so as to make it look like genuine butter is that it may appear to be what it is not, and thus induce unwary purchasers, who do not closely scrutinize the label upon the package in which it is contained, to buy it as and for butter produced from unadulterated milk or cream from such milk. The suggestion that oleomargarine is artificially colored so as to render it more palatable and attractive can only mean that customers are deluded, by such coloration, into believing that they are getting genuine butter. If any one thinks that oleomargarine, not artificially colored so as to cause it to look like butter, is as palatable or as wholesome for purposes of food as pure butter, he is, as ”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Morris v. United States · Amos Bird Co. v. Thompson

2. “The constitution of the United States does not secure to any one the privilege of defrauding the public.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Real Silk Hosiery Mills v. City of Portland · In re Scheitlin

3. ““We are not unmindful of the fact — indeed, this court has often had occasion to observe — that the acknowledged power of the states to protect the morals, the health, and safety of their people by appropriate legislation sometimes touches, in its exercise, the line separating the respective domains of national and state authority. But in view of the complex system of government which exists in this country, ‘presenting,’ as this court, speaking by Chief Justice Marshall, has said, ‘the rare and difficult scheme of one general government, whose action extends over the whole, but which possesses only certain enumerated powers, and of numerous state governments, which retain and exercise all powers not delegated to the Union,’ the judiciary of the United •States should not strike down a legislative enactment of a state, — especially if it has direct connection with the social order, the health, and the morals of its people,-^unless such legislation plainly and palpably violates some right granted or secured by the national constitution, or encroaches upon the authority delegated to the United States for the attainment of objects of national concern.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Considine