Williams v. Kelley’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

8 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. “". . . Since the legislature itself could not effect passage of an act embodying the terms of this regulation, it would seem obvious that the administrative agency, being a creature of and deriving its powers from the legislature, would possess no such power. "Otherwise, the legislature, by the simple expedient of creating an agency, could confer that agency with powers it does not itself possess because of constitutional prohibitions, and the Constitution would thus be circumvented. "In State v. Alabama Power Co. , 254 Ala. 327 , 340 , 48 So.2d 445 , 455 (1950), this Court expressly held that notwithstanding `* * * the legislature [itself] has made no effort to contravene the Constitution of the State * * * it could not do indirectly what the constitution forbids being done directly.' (Emphasis ours)"”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 355 So. 2d 708 - Baldwin Cty. Bd. v. Baldwin Cty. Elec., Etc.

2. “the legislature shall not pass a special, private, or local law in any of the following cases: . . . (14) Fixing the punishment of a crime;. . . .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 355 So. 2d 708 - Baldwin Cty. Bd. v. Baldwin Cty. Elec., Etc.