Commonwealth v. Bryant’s Empirical Analysis
1976
Citation profile
30 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 30 later decisions — most recently February 2020 · most notably 339 Pa. Super. 32 - Commonwealth v. Hernandez (1985), Commonwealth v. Sourbeer (1980)
30 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 Atchison Co v. Matthews · Bilbar Construction Co. v. Easttown Township Board of Adjustment · Commonwealth v. Lukens · Commonwealth v. Sweeney · United States v. Wallace
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 30 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“. the legislature has sought fit to specify mandatory life imprisonment as punishment for assaults committed by prisoners already serving life terms. We do not believe that such punishment is so disproportionate to the offense as to amount to cruel and unusual punishment. Such punishment is clearly intended to serve as a deterrent, and it is not the province of this Court to substitute its judgment for the judgment of an assembly properly exercising its legislative powers.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“As the Superior Court noted in Commonwealth v. Bryant, 239 Pa.Super. 43 , 361 A.2d 350 (1976): It is well settled that the fixing of penalties for crimes is a legislative function, United States v. Wallace, 269 F.2d 394, 398 (3d Cir.1959), and it is a maxim of constitutional law that the legislature will be presumed to have acted within constitutional limits, Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe R. Co. v. Matthews, 174 U.S. 96, 104 , 19 S.Ct. [609] 612, 43 L.Ed. 909 (1899). It is also well established that the burden of demonstrating the unconstitutionality of a legislative enactment is upon the person alleging the act’s unconstitutionality. [Citations omitted]. We therefore should not declare an act of assembly void unless its violation of the Constitution is so clear as to preclude doubt or hesitation. Commonwealth v. Lukens, 312 Pa. 220, 223 , 167 A. 167 (1933).”
1 later decision 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.