Wilkinson v. McGill’s Empirical Analysis
1949
Citation profile
30 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 32 later decisions — most recently June 2014 · most notably Hammond v. Lancaster (1950), 3 Cal. 3d 118 - Canales v. City of Alviso (1970)
30 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Taylor v. Taylor · City of Albuquerque v. Water Supply Co. · State ex rel. Webster v. County Commissioners · Hammond v. Love · Dinneen v. Rider
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 32 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““The question is by no means free from difficulty, but we think the weight of authority and the better reasoning uphold the view that complainants, desiring to avoid an election because illegal votes are cast, have upon them the burden of proving for whom these votes are cast. They cannot thrust that burden upon the Court by arguing that there is a probability that such votes were cast for the side having the majority. They must prove, or at least attempt to prove, how the illegal voters voted. If direct proof cannot be obtained from the illegal voters themselves, other evidence of a circumstantial nature may be offered.””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“defin[ed] the qualifications of those who would be allowed to participate in the election [in a manner] materially different ... from that prescribed by the statute. It was the plain meaning of the notice actually posted that the franchise should be limited to resident taxpayers, while the act extended it to all who had the qualifications of 'legally registered voters’ and who had resided in the district for the period mentioned.” Id. at 420 . The Court pointed out”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““there was an illegal registration of 26 people of whom 23 voted; and that as the majority in favor of the Act was only 16, these illegal votes, if cast in favor of the Act, carried the election, whereas, if they had not voted, it is probable that the election would have been decided the other way.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.