O'BRIEN v. Borowski’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 59 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 63 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[three] or more acts of willful and malicious conduct aimed at a specific person committed with the intent to cause fear, intimidation, abuse or damage to property and that does in fact cause fear, intimidation, abuse or damage to property.”

   9 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 93 Mass. App. Ct. 376 - F.W.T. v. F.T. · F.K. v. S.C.

2. “'True threats' encompass statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals.”

   9 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Walters · Commonwealth v. Bigelow

3. “'Intimidation in the constitutionally proscribable sense of the word is a type of true threat, where a speaker directs a threat to a person or group of persons with the intent of placing the victim in fear of bodily harm or death.' [ Black , supra] at 360 [ 123 S.Ct. 1536 ].... Where the acts are aimed at a specific person, an intent to cause 'abuse' is certainly consistent with a true threat, because abuse is defined in [c. 258E] as 'attempting to cause or causing physical harm to another or placing another in fear of imminent serious physical harm.' G. L. c. 258E, § 1”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 93 Mass. App. Ct. 758 - A.R. v. L.C. · 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1120 - M.H. v. E.R.M.