Commonwealth v. Callaghan’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 15 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. ““It is the contention of the defendant that the statute is ex post facto. * * * The statute does not attempt to punish him for begetting or neglecting to support the child before the statute took effect. The statute, from the time it became a law, requires the defendant, as the father of the child, to contribute to its support and maintenance, thus relieving the mother or others upon whom the burden may chance to fall. “If it is ex post facto legislation to compel the father to provide for the support of a child, not born in wedlock, because born before the statute was enacted, it might be argued that it is contrary to the Constitution to punish a husband under St. 1911, c. 456, for refusing to support his wife and children, because he was married and the children were born before the statute took effect. * * * We are of the opinion that St. 1913, c. 563, is riot ex post facto legislation.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Wamsley v. People