Larson v. Ruskowitz’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 4 district · 20 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 29 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"Any person who shall be aggrieved by any decision of the board of commissioners may appeal from the decision of such board to the district court of the same county, by causing a written notice of such appeal to be served on the clerk of such board within thirty days after the making of such decision, and executing a bond to such county with sufficient security, to be approved by the clerk of said board, conditioned for the faithful prosecution of such appeal, and the payment of all costs that shall be adjudged against the appellant."”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Barnes v. Board of County Commissioners · Barnes v. BD. OF CTY. COM'RS OF COWLEY CTY.

2. ““ The law has been clear ever since Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563 , 20 L. Ed. 2d 811 , 88 S. Ct. 1731 (1968), that a state cannot dismiss a public employee for exercising his or her right to speak out on issues of public concern. To allow a governmental unit to discharge a person because of his or her constitutionally protected speech would have an inhibiting effect on the exercise of that freedom. [Citation omitted.] To allow a governmental unit to suspend a public employee without pay for exercising his or her right to speak on matters of public concern would have the same inhibiting effect. . . . “ ‘However, a public employee’s right to free speech is not absolute. “[T]he State has interests as an employer in regulating the speech of its employees that differ significantly from those it possesses in connection with regulation of the speech of the citizenry in general.” There should be a balance between the interests of a public employee, as a citizen, “in commenting upon matters of public concern and the interest of the State, as an employer, in promoting the efficiency of the public services it performs through its employees.” [Citation omitted.] “ ‘In Connick v. Myers, 461 U.S. 138 , 75 L. Ed. 2d 708 , 103 S. Ct. 1684 (1983), the United States Supreme Court expounded on the correct analysis to be applied to cases such as the one at bar. The first inquiry is whether Riddle’s letter can be fairly characterized as constituting speech on a matter of public co”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 19 Kan. App. 2d 515 - Dennis v. Ruskowitz

3. “‘Public policy requires that citizens in a democracy be protected from reprisals for performing their civic duty of reporting infractions of rules, regulations, or the law pertaining to public health, safety, and the general welfare. Thus, we have no hesitation in holding termination of an employee in retaliation for the good faith reporting of a serious infraction of such mies, regulations, or the law by a co-worker or an employer to either company management or law enforcement officials (whistle-blowing) is an actionable tort. To maintain such action, an employee has the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence, under the facts of the case, a reasonably prudent person would have concluded the employee’s co-worker or employer was engaged in activities in violation of rules, regulations, or the law pertaining to public health, safety, and the general welfare; the employer had knowledge of the employee’s reporting of such violation prior to discharge of the employee; and the employee was discharged in retaliation for making the report. However, the whistle-blowing must have been done out of a good faith concern over the wrongful activity reported rather than from a corrupt motive such as malice, spite, jealousy or personal gain.’ ” Larson, 252 Kan. at 967 . (Emphasis added.)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 19 Kan. App. 2d 515 - Dennis v. Ruskowitz