Sandford v. Pearson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

24 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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Our cases make a clear distinction between (1) Private Acts which confer special benefits and impose special burdens on the citizens of one county, when there is no general statute, and when before the Private Act, there was only the common law, and (2) those Private Acts which undertake to amend or abrogate a prior general statute in its application to a particular county or class of counties. Private Acts of the former class have been upheld, and those of the latter class struck down.”

   7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Board of Education v. Shelby County · Harwell v. Leech

2. ““This general law does not confer any absolute right on the citizens of Tennessee, to manufacture, sell, transport or possess beer, but is a local option statute, (citation omitted) whereby the governing bodies of cities and the Quarterly County Courts of counties, may regulate the manufacture, sale, transportation and possession of beer even to the extent of prohibition.” Id. at 655, 656 , 231 S.W.2d at 337 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Thompson v. City of Harriman