Pressman v. Elgin’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

47 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 53 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Mandamus is a remedy which comes down to us from the past when the Judges of the Court of the King’s Bench issued the writ or not as they saw fit. According to the theory of the common law, the King was the fountain of justice, and where the laws did not afford a remedy and enable the individual to obtain his right by the regular forms of judicial proceedings, the prerogative powers of the sovereign were sought to supplement . the ordinary judicial powers of the Court. Thus mandamus, like habeas corpus, became known as a prerogative writ because it was issued only by exercise of the extraordinary power of the Crown on proper cause shown. Today, however, the theory that mandamus is a prerogative writ no longer has force in America. In Union Pacific R. Co. v. Hall, 91 U. S. 343 , 23 L. Ed. 428, 432 , the United States Supreme Court observed that a private citizen may apply for mandamus in his own name without the intervention of any public official to enforce a public duty not owing to the government as such.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Rodgers v. Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission

2. “[o]rdinarily an attorney is not a party to a suit in which he merely acts in a professional capacity in representing a litigant,”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Mid-Atlantic Power Supply Ass'n v. Public Service Commission