Lawrence v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis
1965
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 6 state decisions
Relationships
Relies on James Graham v. State of West Virginia · John McDonald v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts · Moore v. State of Missouri · Chewning v. Cunningham · Reynolds v. Cochran
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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Recidivist statutes and habitual criminal acts create “no new offense” but merely provide “a proceeding” by which to determine the penalty to impose on one previously convicted of a crime. In other words, it is not a crime to be an habitual criminal, it is rather, a status which makes one convicted of more than one felony liable to a heavier penalty.”
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.