Miller v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 federal appellate · 4 district ·

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

1. “In Clingman , Justices O’Connor and Breyer concurred in the judgment on the narrowest grounds. Although rejecting the conclusion of the plurality that the assoeiational interests at issue were of only minimal importance, the concurring Justices agreed with the plurality that the semiclosed primary system imposed only a minor burden on the LPO’s assoeiational rights and that there were adequate state interests justifying that burden. We must therefore view the latter position as the holding of the Court. We thus are not bound to accept the concurring Justices’ view regarding the importance of the associational interests at stake or their view of the associational bond created by the act of voting in one party’s primary. Indeed, the Court has never adopted the view of the Clingman concurring Justices concerning the associational bond formed by voting in a party primary.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 883 F. Supp. 2d 1231 - Lacasa v. Townsley

2. “[E]ven if it were theoretically possible for the Committee to dictate the selection process in this manner, we do not think the Committee should be required to take such drastic affirmative steps against an incumbent officeholder-with whom it might otherwise agree-in order to preserve its right of free association. Indeed, the upheaval that such action might cause within the local party could conceivably alter the identity of its candidates and the message it conveys to the public, thus implicating the same associational freedoms that the Committee seeks to vindicate here.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Fitzgerald v. Alcorn

3. “Virginia allows political parties to nominate candidates not only by state-run primary but also by other methods controlled and funded by the party. And, by merely choosing any of these other options, a party is free to limit its candidate selection process to voters who share its political views. Thus, the “forced association” that the Supreme Court has condemned simply is not present here.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Greenville County Republican Party Executive Committee v. South Carolina