Commonwealth v. Clap’s Empirical Analysis
1808
Citation profile
1 federal appellate · 66 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 73 later decisions (3 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2019 · most notably Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts (1967), McDonald v. Smith (1985)
1 federal appellate · 66 state decisions — followed in 20 states
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.
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 73 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““And when any man shall consent to be a candidate for a public office conferred by the election of the people, he must be considered as putting his character in issue, so far as it may respect his fitness and qualifications for the office. And publications of the truth on this subject, with the honest intention of informing the people, are not a libel. Eor it would be unreasonable to conclude that the publication of truths, which it is the interest of the people to know, should be an offense against the law.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority““A libel is a malicious publication, expressed either in printing or writing, or by signs and pictures, tending either to blacken the memory of one dead, or the reputation of one who is alive, and expose him to public hatred, contempt, or ridicule. Any words will be deemed defamatory which expose the plaintiff to hatred, contempt, ridicule, or obloquy; which tend to injure him in his profession or trade, or cause him to be shunned or avoided by his neighbors.” Odger, Sland. & Lib. 19.”
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.