249 So. 2d 328 - State v. Time, Inc.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district · 13 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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “... [E]very citizen has a right to criticize an inefficient or corrupt government without fear of civil as well as criminal prosecution. This absolute privilege is founded on the principle that it is advantageous for the public interest that the citizen should not be in any way fettered in his statements, and where the public service or due administration of justice is involved he shall have the right to speak his mind freely.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Weymouth Township Board of Education v. Wolf · 178 N.J. Super. 481 - WEYMOUTH TP. BD. OF ED. v. Wolf

2. “Under the American philosophy of government, the state is a creature of the people and does not exist separate and apart from the people. The ‘state’ is simply the name given to a governmental system designed to maintain an ordered freedom, and this system is not considered distinct from or superior to the people. To accept the argument that the state is capable of being defamed would be to reject the basic American principle that the people are the supreme sovereign and to replace it with the antithetical concept that the state is supreme and exists apart from and independently of the people. As long as ultimate [sovereignty] resides in the people, the state cannot be thought of as having a separate personality and, therefore, cannot be said to have been defamed.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Town of Golden Meadow v. Comet-Press Newspaper, Inc.

3. ““ < * * * [T]he Court cannot accord with plaintiffs conclusion that the state is a person for purposes of the law of defamation and libel. It is the opinion of this Court that a state constitutes a concept or idea, “a sort of intangible sovereignity [sic] (which) legally speaking * * * cannot be assaulted, slandered, or injured as can an individual with respect to a personality which it does not possess. [”] * * * Under the American philosophy of government, the state is a creature of the people and does not exist separate and apart from the people.* * *As long as ultimate sovereignity [sic] resides in the people, the state cannot be thought of as having a separate personality and, therefore, cannot be said to have been defamed.’ ” Id., at 329 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 70 Ohio App. 2d 205 - Village of Grafton v. American Broadcasting Co.