21 Ill. 2d 594 - The PEOPLE v. Polk’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. ““Neither the Illinois constitution nor the legislature has attempted to define the powers of the grand jury. It has its origin in the common law and has existed for many hundreds of years. Its construction, organization, jurisdiction and method of proceeding were all well known features of the common law before the organization of the State of Illinois and have been recognized and adopted in all our constitutions and in legislation as it existed at the organization of the State. [Citation.] While the grand jury is a nécessary constituent part of a court having general criminal jurisdiction [citation], its powers are not dependent upon the court but are original and complete. Its duty is to diligently inquire into all offenses which shall come to its knowledge whether from the court, the State’s Attorney, its own members, or from any source, and it may make presentments of its own knowledge without any instruction or authority from the court. [Citation.] Although we have stated a court cannot limit the scope of the grand jury’s investigation [citation], it is equally true that a grand jury has no right or jurisdiction to conduct an investigation into the personal affairs of citizens when there is no charge of a criminal offense involved, or where it otherwise lacks jurisdiction of the subject matter. [Citations.]””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 109 Ill. App. 3d 316 - People v. Gibson