McCarthy v. Tribbitt’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 federal appellate · 2 district · 1 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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[i]t may be that the 1% registration requirement is a valid condition to extending ballot position to a new political party. But the political party and the independent candidate approaches to political activity are entirely different and neither is a satisfactory substitute for the other. A new party organization contemplates a state-wide, ongoing organization with distinctive political character. Its goal is typically to gain control of the machinery of state government by electing its candidates to public office. From the standpoint of a potential supporter, affiliation with the new party would mean giving up his ties with another party or sacrificing his own independent status, even though-his possible interest in the new party centers around a particular candidate for a particular office. For the candidate himself, it would mean undertaking the serious responsibilities of qualified party status under California law, such as the conduct of a primary, holding party conventions, and the promulgation of party platforms. But more fundamentally, the candidate, who is by definition an independent and desires to remain one, must now consider himself a party man, surrendering his independent status. Must he necessarily choose the political party route if he wants to appear on the ballot in the general election? We think not.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 495 F. Supp. 782 - Hall v. Austin

2. ““Simply stated, every independent candidate has the right to have his name placed on a ballot, subject to the state’s authority to restrict access to those who are independent, serious and have community support. . Since the Federal Constitution establishes no qualifications for presidential candidates, other than age, citizenship, and residence, and since the Delaware restrictions are unconstitutional as applied to independent candidates, the plaintiff candidates have a right to be placed on the ballot. . . . ‘this is a federal court and not the Delaware General Assembly . the defendants cannot now successfully seek to impose judicially a requirement that the legislature has declined to impose. This Court will not presume to encroach upon the legislative discretion delegated by Article I Sec. 4 . . .’””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 495 F. Supp. 782 - Hall v. Austin

3. “substantially [burden] the 'availability of political opportunity.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Schillberg v. Williams