Phillips v. Thralls’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

17 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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Does this extending the limits of their territorial jurisdiction beyond the limits of the territory which elects give them a right to hold court anywhere within the larger limit, or must the locality of the court be confined to the territory which elects and of which they are the officers? My Brethren think the latter, and that, in the absence of express statutory authority, a justice of the peace cannot hold his court outside'the locality which elects him and of which he is an officer. Whatever the limits to which process may go out of his court, or whatever the extent of the territorial jurisdiction conferred upon him, he is an officer of the township, his court is a court of the township, and his court as a court has no valid existence outside the limits of that township. One purpose contemplated in the organization of these courts was to have neighborhood courts, convenient to every individual for the settlement of minor disputes. If one justice may move his court out of his township to any other place in the county, all may; and we may have the spectacle of all the justices of all the townships in a county congregating in the county seat, and holding office there. Thus would one of the beneficent purposes of these inferior courts be defeated.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Leiber, Justice of the Peace v. Argaubright