Avery v. Midland County’s Empirical Analysis
1966
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 11 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 20 later decisions (1 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2013
5 federal appellate · 11 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
Relies on Baker v. Carr · Reynolds v. Sims · Wesberry v. Sanders · Gray v. Sanders · Hunter v. City of Pittsburgh
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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““We recognized . . . that the county commissioners court is not charged with the management and control of all of the county’s business affairs; and that the various officials elected by all the voters of the county have spheres that are delegated to them by law and within which the commissioners court may not interfere or usurp. The voice of the rural areas will be lost for all practical purposes if the commissioners precincts of counties are apportioned solely on a population basis except, perhaps, in those few sparsely settled counties without a concentration of urban centers. Yet, important affairs of the county administered by the commissioners court—such as roads, bridges, taxable values of large land areas-disproportionately concern the rural areas. Theoretically, the commissioners court is the governing body of the county and the commissioners represent all the residents, both urban and rural, of the county. But developments during the years have greatly narrowed the scope of the functions of the commissioners court and limited its major responsibilities to the nonurban areas of the county. It has come to pass that the city government with its legislative, executive and judicial branches, is the major concern of the city dwellers and the administration of the affairs of the county is the major concern of the rural dwellers.” Avery v. Midland County, supra, 406 S. W. 2d at 428 .”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Dortch v. Lugar“Each county shall, in the manner provided for justice of the peace and constable precincts, be divided into four commissioners precincts in each of which there shall be elected by the qualified voters thereof one County Commissioner, who shall hold his office for four years and until his successor shall be elected and qualified. The County Commissioners so chosen, with the County Judge as presiding officer, shall compose the County Commissioners Court, which shall exercise such powers and jurisdiction over all county business, as is conferred by this Constitution and the laws of the State, or as may be hereafter prescribed.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““The county is a subordinate and derivative branch of state government .... The appellation ‘court’ is a misnomer in the accepted meaning .... The primary function of the commissioners court is the administration of the business affairs of the county .... Its legislative functions are negligible and county government is not otherwise comparable to the legislature of a state or to the federal Congress”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.