Majors v. Abell’s Empirical Analysis
361 F.3d 349 · 2004
Citation profile
8 federal appellate · 1 district · 4 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently March 2021
8 federal appellate · 1 district · 4 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 2 U.S.C. § 434 (§ 304 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971)
Relies on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Buckley v. Valeo · Virginia State Board of Pharmacy v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council, Inc. · First National Bank of Boston v. X Bellotti · Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois
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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“impossible for courts at our level to make an informed decision — for the Supreme Court has not told us what principle to apply.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The avidity with which candidates for public office seek endorsements is evidence (as if any were needed) that the identity of a candidate’s supporters— and opponents — is information that the voting public values highly. In areas of inquiry where logic or exact observation is unavailing, a speaker’s credibility often depends crucially on who he is. As Aristotle said, “persuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible. We believe good men more fully and more readily than others: this is true generally whatever the question is, and absolutely true where exact certainty is impossible and opinions are divided.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“[W]e must consider the possibility that anonymity promotes a focus on the strength of the argument rather than the identity of the speaker; this is a reason why Madison, Hamilton, and Jay chose to publish The Federalist anonymously. Instead of having to persuade New Yorkers that his roots in Virginia should be overlooked, Madison could present the arguments and let the reader evaluate them on merit.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.