Solomon v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

40 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 40 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “I would return this court to the active judicial role and obligation to guard and protect a clear and strong wall of separation between each of the three great departments of government—keeping each within its proper province and protecting those provinces from colonization by the other two departments. It is within the judicial province to carefully exercise this power without deference to the other branches, and it is the duty of our department to carry out this obligation without regard to whether the results are perceived to be either beneficial or detrimental to judicial interests or other sub-constitutional interests such as what we (or any other government official) decide is 'practicable' or 'efficient.'”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Breedlove v. State · Hilburn v. Enerpipe Ltd.

2. “the constitutional separation of powers can essentially be waived by the departments of government whenever they find such separation an inconvenient impediment to some sought-after governmental end misapprehends and may fatally undermine the fundamental purpose of such walls of separation in the first instance—to prevent the 'gradual concentration of the several powers in the same department' which 'may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.' [James Madison, The Federalist No. 51, p. 321 and No. 47, p. 301 (C. Rossiter ed. 1961)].”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Breedlove v. State · Kelly v. Legislative Coordinating Council

3. “when 'the Government is called upon to perform a function that requires an exercise of legislative, executive, or judicial power, only the vested recipient of that power can perform it'”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. In re M.F. · In re W.L.