Groves v. Barden’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 16 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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““What is necessary to constitute a person an officer of the United States, in any of the various (branches of its service, has been very fully considered by this court in United States v. Germaine, 99 U. S. 508 . In that case it was distinctly pointed out that, under the Constitution of the United States, all its officers were appointed by the President, by and with the consent of the Senate, or by a court of law, or the head of a department; and the heads of the departments were defined in that opinion to be what are now called the members of the Cabinet. Unless a person in the service of the government therefore holds his place by virtue of an appointment by the President or of one of the courts of justice or heads of departments authorized by law to make such an appointment, he is not, strictly speaking, an . officer of the United States. ’ ’”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Blackwood v. Welch

2. ““An office or place of trust requiring a proceeding by quo warranto for the motion of the incumbent is defined as follows: ‘A public position to which a portion of the sovereignty of the country, either legislative, executive or judicial, attaches for the time being, and which is exercised for the benefit of the public.’ High, Ex. Leg. Rem. § 620; Meehem, Pub. Off. § 1. The most important characteristic which distinguishes an office from a public agency is that the conferring of the office carries with it a delegation to the individual of some of the sovereign functions of the government. In this respect the terms 'office’ and 'place of trust,’ as used in our Constitution, are synonymous.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Suncrest Lumber Co. v. North Carolina Park Commission

3. ““It may be stated as a general rule, fairly dedueible from the cases -discussing this question, that a position is a public office when it is created by law, with duties cast upon the incumbent which involve an exercise of some portion of the sovereign power and in the performance of which the public is concerned, and which also are continuing in their nature and not occasional or intermittent.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Suncrest Lumber Co. v. North Carolina Park Commission