Commonwealth v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““But in that case the affiant expressed a mere belief * * * and gave as his reason for such belief that • ‘he smelled the odors of intoxicating liquors and mash arising from and com- , ing out of said premises,’ without fixing the time that he smelled such odors. In the instant case the affiants stated as a fact that ‘Charles Cain Thomas has spirituous and intoxicating liquor in her dwelling house.’ This fact was necessarily ascertained through one of the five senses, and the statement in the affidavit that affiants saw the liquor did not weaken or qualify the preceding statement of an existing fact. * * * The affiants fixed the ■, time of the unlawful possession of the liquor as the present, and stated it as ■an existing fact, and the mere- statement, of their reason for knowing that the liquor was then in the possession of the accused was surplusage.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Henson v. Commonwealth