Smith v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

67 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 67 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"Broadly speaking, there are two types or classes of cases in which rules and regulations promulgated by state agencies may be brought into question in suits properly instituted for such purpose. The first is the type or class in which the primary purpose of the litigation is to obtain a judicial interpretation or declaration of a party's rights or duties under such rules and regulations, where no unlawful invasion of a lawful right secured to the plaintiff by the Constitution or laws of the jurisdiction is directly threatened in the county where suit is instituted. The second is the type or class in which the primary purpose of the litigation is to obtain direct judicial protection from an alleged unlawful invasion of the constitutional rights of the plaintiff within the county where the suit is instituted, because of the enforcement or threatened enforcement by a state agency of rules and regulations alleged to be unconstitutional as to the plaintiff, and where the validity or invalidity of the rules and regulations sought to be enforced comes into question only secondarily and as incidental to the main issue involved." (35 So.2d at pages 846 and 847)”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 865 So. 2d 1278 - Florida Department of Children and Families v. Sun-Sentinel, Inc. · 763 So. 2d 1245 - Dickinson v. FL NAT. ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN, INC.

2. “[I]n order to promote orderly, efficient, and economical government, controversies involving the proper interpretation to be given rules and regulations promulgated by state agencies ought to be concentrated at the seat of state government where such state agencies are located, where such rules and regulations are promulgated, and where such suits can be defended at a minimum expenditure of effort and public funds. Such concentration of litigation manifestly makes for uniformity of interpretation of rules and regulations promulgated by such state instrumentalities and prevents conflicting judicial rulings in different jurisdictions resulting in decrees binding only in the counties where rendered and serving only to protect parties to the suits from the operation only of unlawful acts shown to have been actually committed within such particular jurisdictions.”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Jacksonville Electric Authority v. Clay County Utility Authority · Department of Children & Families v. Sun-Sentinel, Inc.

3. “the state agency affected has full means for requiring such suit to be brought in the county of its headquarters by filing timely objections in the pending cause and claiming the privilege of being sued in the forum designated by the legislature; or the state agency may waive such privilege by contesting the merits, thereby submitting itself to the jurisdiction of the court in which the suit has been instituted. Through either procedure exercised in the manner indicated, the state agency has adequate authority to control the venue of actions brought primarily for the purpose of securing a construction of such [statute] rules and regulations, where the unlawful invasion of the fundamental rights of the plaintiff within the county of suit is not directly involved.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 47 So. 2d 525 - Gay v. Ogilvie