Common Cause v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 27 later decisions — most recently February 2026 · most notably Maine Ass'n of Interdependent Neighborhoods v. Commissioner, Maine Department of Human Services (1989), Maready v. City of Winston-Salem (1996)
2 federal appellate · 25 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 Valley Forge Christian College v. Americans United for Separation of Church and State, Inc. · Singleton v. Wulff · Griswold v. State of Connecticut · National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. State of Alabama Patterson · Pierce v. Society of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary Same
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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[Ijndeed, the plaintiffs, as taxpayers, assert their own direct interest in the enforcement of a provision of the Maine Constitution which, as construed by this Court, is aimed precisely at protecting taxpayers from having their tax dollars used for private purposes. The plaintiffs assert also a direct interest in the enforcement of a constitutional provision designed to prevent the state from becoming overburdened with debt. Again, the taxpayers of the state are surely among the principal intended beneficiaries of that provision.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Collins v. State“That longstanding rule is based on three considerations: first, if the holders of those rights either did not wish to assert them or could enjoy them regardless of the success of the in-court litigant, the court would adjudicate the rights unnecessarily. Also, the “thrust” or timing of the action in which the rights of the third party are raised, or the choice of forum, may conflict seriously with the third party’s underlying interest. Finally, third parties are usually the best proponents of their own rights.”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. In Re Bailey M.“It is not for the Court to assess the wisdom or the efficacy [of the expenditures] as a matter of economic or fiscal policy ... If the project has a rational basis, we may not strike it down merely because, if we were acting in the role of voters or legislators, we would deem it unwise, (citations omitted).”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Delogu v. State
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.