Alfrey v. Colbert’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate ·

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

1. ““We are of the opinion that it was the intention of Congress that no conveyance forbidden by any of the terms of the sixteenth section of the act should be susceptible of ratification or be made good by estoppel. The section in its completeness has a common subject-matter, the disposition of allotments, and the provisions regarding it would naturally be grouped or placed in a single subdivision or paragraph of an agreement or in a single section of a law. The express restrictions,npon alienation as to both homesteads and surplus lands appear in the first paragraph, not in the second, and it was to them the final clause was obviously directed. The act of June BO, 1902, differs from acts of Congress in general, in that the subdivisions thereof arc not designated as sections. The body of the act was a prior agreement between the Dawes Commission and representatives of the Creek Tribe of Indians, and, with some changes, it was confirmed by Congress and submitted to the tribal council for ratification. The subdivisions or paragraphs of the prior agreement were consecutively numbered, and that arrangement was preserved when it was incorporated in the act. A similar arrangement and omission to designate numbered subdivisions or paragraphs as sections will be found in the agreement with the Choctaws and Chicha saws embodied in Act July 1, 1902, c. 1302, 32 Stat. 6 -11. We think it quite clear that ‘paragraph’ was used synonymously with ‘subdivision’ or ‘section,’ and that it does not”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Nunn v. Hazelrigg

2. ““Lands allotted to citizens shall not in any manner whatever or at any time be incumbered, taken, or sold to secure or satisfy any debt or obligation nor be alienated by the allottee or his heirs before the expiration of live years from the date of the approval of this supplemental agreement, except with the approval of the Secretary of the Interior. * * * Any agreement or conveyance of any kind or character violative of any of the provisions of this paragraph shall be absolutely void and not susceptible of ratification in any manner, and no rule of estoppel shall ever prevent the assertion of its in-«alidity.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Nunn v. Hazelrigg