Shepard v. Barkley’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 federal appellate · 3 district · 21 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 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, hereinafter for convenience referred to as the plaintiff church, is a large, national, voluntary religious organization, comprising many churches of the Presbyterian denomination throughout the country, united in a common religious belief and form of worship, and having an organization which embraces the various churches and congregations, all of which are subject to the authority of other ecclesiastical bodies called judicatories, with the final authority vested in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. “The executive body of each church or congregation is called a Session, which seems to have the functions of an executive committee. It is composed of members of the congregation, elected by it, called ruling elders, together with the regularly installed pastor who is ex officio the moderator. To constitute a Session there must be at least one ruling elder and the pastor. The Session has charge of the spiritual welfare of the congregation and the right to control the use of the property of the church for the purposes of worship. “Next above the Session in the organization is the Presbytery, consisting of all the ministers, — in number not less than five, —and one ruling elder from each congregation within a certain district. Subject to appeal, the Presbytery has jurisdiction over the churches in its district. The Session of any regular Presbyterian Church in Portland is subject”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Master v. Second Parish

2. “"* * * the court is of opinion that the doctrines by which the case is controlled have been so affirmatively and conclusively settled by a prior decision of this court as to cause it to be unnecessary as a matter of original consideration to restate them. Watson v. Jones, 13 Wall. 679 , 20 L.Ed. 666 . And the want of any possible reason for removing this case from the control of the doctrines of the Watson Case is, if needs be, conclusively shown by the many cases referred to by the court below in its opinion (8 Cir., 222 F. 669 , 138 C.C.A. 217 ), in which the Watson Case was made controlling and decisive as to controversies not in substance differing from the one here presented."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 102 So. 2d 714 - St. John's Presbytery v. Central Presbyterian Church of St. Petersburg