State v. Sweat’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

79 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 88 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A statute should be so construed that no word, clause, sentence, provision or part shall be rendered surplusage, or superfluous.”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Olds v. City of Goose Creek · Senate of State v. His Excellency Henry D. Mcmaster

2. “A statute as a whole must receive a practical, reasonable, and fair interpretation consonant with the purpose, design, and policy of the lawmakers.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Beaufort County v. South Carolina State Election Commission · Gatewood v. South Carolina Department of Corrections

3. “[F]or an issue to be preserved for appellate review, it must have been raised to and ruled upon by the trial judge.”). 4 . Our conclusion that the above phrase refers to the parameters established by Parker and Jansen is also supported by considering the effect of omitting the term "required” from the statute. If the statute did not include "required,” it would provide as follows: "The videotaping at the breath site ... must also include the person’s conduct during the twenty-minute pre-test waiting period.” Under such a version of the statute, the "must also include” language would itself mandate the waiting period be videotaped, and the term "required”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State v. Elwell