Smith v. Flournoy’s Empirical Analysis
1959
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 64 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 70 later decisions — most recently June 2017 · most notably Summerell v. Phillips (1971), 874 So. 2d 131 - Richard v. Hall (2004)
2 federal appellate · 64 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Dore v. Tugwell · State v. BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, ETC. · State ex rel. New Orleans Canal & Banking Co. v. Heard · Bradford v. Louisiana Public Service Commission · Louisiana Motor Vehicle Com'n v. WHEELING FRENCH.
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 70 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the object of the court in construing a statute is to ascertain the legislative intent and, where a literal interpretation would produce absurd consequences, the letter must give way to the spirit of the law and the statute construed so as to produce a reasonable result.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage““The Heard ease, which represents the majority view in this country, enunciates the general rule that a public officer, charged with statutory duties of a ministerial character, is without interest or right to question the constitutionality of the statute affecting or prescribing such duties as a defense to a mandamus proceeding to compel their performance. See Annotation 129 A.L.R. 941 , supplementing 30 A.L.R. 378 , and cases there cited. This doctrine is founded in the basic tenent that, forasmuch as legislative acts are entitled to great respect and are presumptively constitutional, it would be inimical to public policy to allow a party without interest in a statute, and who is not injuriously affected by its enforcement, to assail its validity. City of New Orleans v. Dameron, 149 La. 535 , 89 So. 685 .””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“relator is without interest to assert the unconstitutionality of the statute as a defense to a suit to compel the performance of ministerial duties imposed on her by law.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.