McNair v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate · 1 district · 6 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 8 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““No clearer statement has been or can be made of the law as to the dominating influence of the intention of a statute in the construction of all its parts than that which is found in Kent’s Commentaries: ‘In the exposition of a statute the intention of the lawmaker will prevail over the literal sense of the terms, and its reason and intention will prevail over the strict letter. When the words are not explicit, the intention is to be collected from the context, from the occasion and necessity of the law, from the mischief felt and the remedy in view; and the intention is to be taken or presumed according to what is consonant with reason and good discretion.’ ” • a”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In re Matthews

2. ““One part of a statute must be so construed by another that the whole may, if possible, stand, and that, if it can be prevented, no- clause, sentence, or word shall be superfluous, void, or insignificant. Less regard is to be paid to the words used than to the policy which dictated the act.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In re Matthews