Brown v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In 1890, the California Supreme Court rejected a constitutional challenge to a 'vaccination act' that required schools to exclude any child who had not been vaccinated against smallpox. [Citation.] In dismissing the suggestion that the act was 'not within the scope of a police regulation,' the court observed that, '[w]hile vaccination may not be the best and safest preventive possible, experience and observation ... dating from the year 1796 ... have proved it to be the best method known to medical science to lessen the liability to infection with the disease.' [Citation.] That being so, 'it was for the legislature to determine whether the scholars of the public schools should be subjected to it, and we think it was justified in deeming it a necessary and salutary burden to impose upon that general class.' [Citation.] [¶] More than 125 years have passed since [our Supreme Court's decision in Abeel v. Clark (1890) 84 Cal. 226 , 24 P. 383 ], during which many federal and state cases, beginning with the high court's decision in Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905) 197 U.S. 11 , 25 S.Ct. 358 , 49 L.Ed. 643 ( Jacobson ), have upheld, against various constitutional challenges, laws requiring immunization against various diseases. This is another such case, with a variation on the theme but with the same result.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Love v. State Dep't of Educ.

2. “discusses the protective effect of community immunity, which 'wanes as large numbers of children do not receive some or all of the required vaccinations, resulting in the reemergence of vaccine preventable diseases in the U.S.' [Citation.] The report explains that the vaccination rate in various communities 'varies widely across the state,' and some areas 'become more susceptible to an outbreak than the state's overall vaccination levels may suggest,' making it 'difficult to control the spread of disease and mak[ing] us vulnerable to having the virus re-establish itself.' [Citation.] Further, studies have found that 'when belief exemptions to vaccination guidelines are permitted, vaccination rates decrease,' and one analysis 'found that more than a quarter of schools in California have measles-immunization rates below the 92-94% recommended by the CDC [ (Center for Disease Control) ].' [Citation.] The report describes the December 2014 outbreak of measles linked to Disneyland (131 confirmed cases); states that according to the CDC, 'measles is one of the first diseases to reappear when vaccination coverage rates fall'; and states that in 2014, 600 cases were reported to the CDC, the highest in many years.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Love v. State Dep't of Educ.

3. “The legislature no doubt was of the opinion that the proper place to commence in the attempt to prevent the spread of contagion was among the young, where they were kept together in considerable numbers in the same room for long hours each day. ... [The legislation] in no way interferes with the right of the child to attend school, provided the child complies with its provisions. ... When we have determined that the act is within the police power of the state, nothing further need be said. The rest is to be left to the discretion of the law-making power. It is for that power to say whether vaccination shall be had as to all school children who have not been vaccinated all the time”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Love v. State Dep't of Educ.