Shurtleff v. Stevens’s Empirical Analysis
1879
Citation profile
26 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 26 later decisions — most recently September 1966 · most notably Coleman v. MacLennan (1908), Lancour v. Herald & Globe Ass'n (1941)
26 state decisions — followed in 15 states
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 Streety v. Wood
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 26 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Amongst these powers and privileges, established by long and immemorial usage, churches have authority to deal with their members, for immoral and scandalous conduct; and for that purpose, to hear complaints, to take evidence and to decide; and, upon conviction, to administer proper punishment by way of rebuke, censure, suspension or excommunication. To this jurisdiction, every member, by entering into the church covenant, submits, and is bound by his consent. . . . The proceedings of the church are quasi-judicial, and therefore those who complain, or give testimony, or act and vote, or pronounce the result, orally or in writing, acting in good faith, and within the scope of the authority conferred by this limited jurisdiction, and not falsely or colorably, making such proceedings a pretense for covering an intended scandal, are protected by law.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“the only limitation that attaches to the privilege is (as in the case of proceedings of courts), that the publication must not be made for the purpose of inflicting an injury but to promulgate facts which duty or interest require to be promulgated.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“The maintenance of decency and propriety in conducting public worship and of the sanctity of the sacred edifice and all connected with it, is surely a matter of the greatest public concern. The very use of the term `public worship' shows this.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.