State Ex Rel. Hooker v. Thompson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Although the dissent of Justice Hum-phreys makes a number of good points, this Court concludes that it must follow the majority in Higgins. To rule the meaning of the term “election” as used in the Tennessee Constitution is limited to the popular concept of an election (i.e., a choice among one [sic] or more candidates in which the candidate with the most votes wins the office), would be to hold, in effect, that the Tennessee Constitution uses an internally inconsistent definition of “election.” ... Thus, it being the duty of this Court, if there is a doubt as to the meaning of the Constitution or a seeming conflict, “... to harmonize such portions and favor the construction which will render every word operative ...,” Shelby County v. Hale, 200 Tenn. 503 , 292 S.W.2d 745 (1956), this Court holds that the yes/no retention vote provided for in the Tennessee Plan is in compliance with the Article VI, Section 3 mandate of the Tennessee Constitution that Judges of the Supreme Court be “elected by the qualified voters.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. John Jay Hooker v. Governor Bill Haslam

2. “(1) whether the Tennessee Plan is constitutional "in view of the fact that the statute provides that the Governor shall fill by appointment all appellate judicial vacancies for the full and unexpired terms to be followed by a retention election to 'retain or replace' the judges, when the Tenn. Const, requires under Article VI, § 3 and § 4, Article VII, § 4 and § 5, and Article X, § 1 that all appellate judges be elected and ‘chosen’ at biennial elections both for the full term and the unexpired terms”; and (2) whether the Tennessee Plan is constitutional "in view of the fact that all Court of Appeals judges, civil and criminal, must under the statute be elected by the 'qualified voters of the state’ in a retention election where the voters vote only to 'retain or replace’ and when the Tenn. Const requires that they be elected and 'chosen' by the qualified voters in the ‘district to which the judges are assigned.’ Article VI, 6 4 and Article X, § 1.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. John Jay Hooker v. Governor Bill Haslam

3. “by turning over to the Legislature the right to say how Supreme Court Judges shall be chosen, this Supreme Court abdicates its place as a coequal part of our tripartite state government, and subordinates itself to the Legislature. Of this subordination, there can be no doubt. Where once the Constitution protected this Court, and preserved it, it must now take its chances with the Legislature. Today the Plan provides for recall by majority vote. But this is only statutory, so what is to keep the Legislature from providing for recall by a different percentage. For that matter, what is to keep it from saying that a judge must be approved by an affirmative vote of such a percentage as will empty the Bench of presently serving judges? If all of this is truly within the power of the Legislature, there is nothing to save this Court.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. John Jay Hooker v. Governor Bill Haslam