Commonwealth v. Brandwein’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

20 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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “told [the officer] that the defendant had brought a gun to the clinic, and that she had locked the gun in her office . . . [She later] turned over the defendant’s gun and ammunition, and provided [the officer] with more detail concerning the defendant’s visit — that the defendant had arrived in a distraught and suicidal state, that he had had a gun, that he had turned over the gun on request, that he had admitted to robbing a bank, and that he had been burned when the stolen money had “exploded.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 32 Mass. L. Rptr. 193 - Commonwealth v. Cinelli

2. “"[i]n any proceeding, except one involving child custody, adoption or adoption consent, in which the patient introduces his mental or emotional condition as an element of his claim or defense, and the judge or presiding officer finds that it is more important to the interests of justice that the communication be disclosed than that the relationship between patient and psychotherapist be protected."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Waweru

3. “introduce[d] his mental or emotional condition as an element of his claim or defense”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Waweru