Hernandez v. Robles’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “It is precisely because we cannot expect the Legislature, representing majoritarian interests, to act to protect the rights of the homosexual minority, that our courts must take the necessary steps to acknowledge and act in protection of those rights. [¶] Moreover, the assumption that `a majority of citizens has the right to insure by legal fiat that marriage continue to have its historical associations . . . contradicts a very basic principle of human dignity, which is that no person or group has the right deliberately to impose personal ethical values — the values that fix what counts as a successful and fulfilled life—on anyone else.' [Citation.]”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 143 Cal. App. 4th 873 - In Re Marriage Cases

2. “The legislative process involves setting priorities, making difficult decisions, making imperfect decisions and approaching problems incrementally, and rational basis analysis does not require that a legislature take the ideal or best approach [citations].”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 143 Cal. App. 4th 873 - In Re Marriage Cases

3. “the right to marry means little if it does not include the right to marry the person of one's choice, subject to appropriate government restrictions in the interests of public health, safety and welfare.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 143 Cal. App. 4th 873 - In Re Marriage Cases