Commonwealth v. Mikulan’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
207 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 211 later decisions — most recently September 2024 · most notably Consumer Party of Pennsylvania v. Com. (1986), Commonwealth v. Williams (1999)
207 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 Wolff v. McDonnell · Grayned v. City of Rockford · Morissette v. United States · Kolender v. Lawson · Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville
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 211 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““[There is a] strong presumption of constitutionality and the heavy burden of pursuasion (sic) upon one who challenges the constitutionality of an Act of the General Assembly. Snider v. Thornburgh, 496 Pa. 159, 166 , 436 A.2d 593, 596 (1981); Commonwealth v. Barnes and Tucker Co., 472 Pa. 115, 123 , 371 A.2d 461, 468 (1977), appeal dismissed, 434 U.S. 807 , 98 S.Ct. 38 , 54 L.Ed.2d 65 (1977). Accordingly legislation will not be declared unconstitutional unless it ‘clearly, palpably and plainly’ violates the constitution. Snider v. Thorn-burgh, supra; Tosto v. Pennsylvania Nursing Home Loan Agency, 460 Pa. 1, 16 , 331 A.2d 198, 203 (1975). Commonwealth v. Mikulan, 504 Pa. 244, 247 , 470 A.2d 1339, 1340 (1983).” Id. at 37-38, 488 A.2d at 296.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“(a) Offense defined. — A person shall not drive, operate or be in actual physical control of the movement of any vehicle: (4) while the amount of alcohol by weight in the blood of the person is 0.10% or greater....”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“The touchstone of due process is protection of the individual against arbitrary action of the government. Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539 , 94 S.Ct. 2963, 2975 , 41 L.Ed. 935 (1974). “As generally stated, the void-for vagueness doctrine requires that a penal statute define the criminal offense with sufficient definiteness that ordinary people can understand what conduct is prohibited and in a manner that does not encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.” Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. 352 , [357], 103 S.Ct. 1855 , [1858] 75 L.Ed.2d 903, 909 (1983). The principle aspect of the doctrine is the requirement that legislation establish minimal guidelines to govern law enforcement for, without such minimal guidelines, a criminal statute might permit “a standardless sweep [that] allows policemen, prosecutors, and juries to pursue their personal predictions.” Id. at [358], 103 S.Ct. at 1858 , 75 L.Ed.2d at 909 quoting Smith v. Goguen, 415 U.S. 566, 575 , 94 S.Ct. 1242, 1248 , 39 L.Ed.2d 605 (1974). In Commonwealth v. DeFrancesco, 481 Pa. 595 , 393 A.2d 321 (1978), this Court applied the above principles to uphold a disorderly conduct/refusal to dis perse statute, 18 Pa.C.S.A. § 5502, against a due process/vagueness challenge, and identified the “root of the vagueness doctrine” as a “rough idea of fairness. It is not a principle designed to convert into a constitutional dilemma the practical difficulties in drawing criminal statutes both general enough to take into account a ”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.