McIntire’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Where a decision does not announce new common-law rules or rights but rather construes a statute, no analysis of retroactive or prospective effect is required because at issue is the meaning of the statute since its enactment.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 93 Mass. App. Ct. 399 - Commonwealth v. Taranovsky · 92 Mass. App. Ct. 567 - Reichenbach v. Haydock

2. “[B]ecause the 2002 judgment had not been reversed at the time of the petitioner's 2005, 2008, and 2010 discharge proceedings, that earlier judgment remained validly in effect, and the petitioner was therefore legally held at the treatment center as an SDP when he filed the three later discharge petitions,”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Mass. App. Ct. 701 - Commonwealth v. Ballard

3. “one which, from its inception, was a complete nullity and without legal effect.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 29 Mass. L. Rptr. 320 - Stevens v. Commonwealth