Robert Devine v. City of Los Angeles’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

96 federal appellate · 33 district · 22 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 270 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““There being no diversity of citizenship, the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court could only be maintained upon the ground that the suit arose under the Constitution or laws or treaties of the United States, and a suit does not so arise unless it really and substantially involves a dispute or controversy as to the effect or construction of the Constitution or some law or treaty of the United States, upon the determination of which the result depends. And this must appear from the plaintiff’s statement of his own claim, and cannot be aided by allegations as to the defenses which might be interposed.””

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. McGilvra v. Ross · Beck v. Johnson

2. ““ * * * a right or immunity created by the Constitution or laws of the United States must be an element, and an essential one, of the plaintiff’s cause of action. * * * The right or immunity must be such that it will be supported if the Constitution or laws of the United States are given one construction or effect, and defeated if they receive another. * * * A genuine and present controversy, not merely a possible or conjectural one, must exist with reference thereto * * * and the controversy must be disclosed upon the face of the complaint unaided by the answer * * *. Indeed, the complaint itself will not avail as a basis of jurisdiction in so far as it goes beyond a statement of the plaintiff’s cause of action and anticipates or replies to a probable defense.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 266 F. Supp. 552 - Lang v. Colonial Pipeline Company

3. ““This statute enlarges the ancient jurisdiction of the courts of equity in respect of suits to quiet title, but, the equitable rights themselves remaining, the enlargement thereof may be administered by the Circuit Courts of the United States as well as by the courts of the state.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. New Jersey & N. C. Land & Lumber Co. v. Gardner-Lacy Lumber Co.