State v. Patrick J. Lynch’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “that a lead opinion is one that states (and agrees with) the mandate of a majority of the justices, but represents the reasoning of less than a majority of the participating justices.”

   7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Vincent Milewski v. Town of Dover · State v. Richard L. Weber

2. “The outcome of a case should not turn on whether the current members of the court find one legal argument more persuasive but, rather, on whether today's majority has come forward with the type of extraordinary showing that this court has historically demanded before overruling one of its precedents.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Priorities USA v. Wisconsin Elections Commission

3. “[I]t is not alone sufficient that we would decide a case differently now than we did then. To reverse course, we require as well what we have termed a 'special justification'——over and above the belief "that the precedent was wrongly decided.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Jeffrey C. Denny