State v. Ritchison’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

45 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 45 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “is to give the trial court a more adequate basis for its evidentiary ruling and to make a meaningful record for appellate review since a reviewing court cannot predicate error upon speculation as to answers which would have been given to questions had objections thereto not been sustained. [Authorities.]”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Stanford v. Iowa State Reformatory · State v. Harrington

2. ““ ‘The word “incompetent” as applied to evidence means no more than inadmissible, and thus cannot be said to state a ground of objection.’ McCormick on Evidence, Second Edition, section 52. It is condemned for lack of precision. “As respects objection to testimony the terms ‘immaterial and irrelevant’ are used interchangeably; but ‘immaterial’ more precisely denotes evidence which is offered to prove a proposition not at issue, while ‘irrelevant’ denotes evidence which does not logically tend to establish any material proposition. [Citation]. U * * * “The objections, ‘irrelevant and immaterial,’ when admissibility of evidence is challenged in the trial court on either of those grounds are sufficiently specific to raise the issue in this court.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Trushcheff v. Abell-Howe Co.

3. ““We believe a better rule would be that in order to preserve for review any alleged error in ruling on the constitutionality of a statute, the party challenging the statute must do so at the earliest available opportunity in the progress of the case.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Glenn