In Re Stephenson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 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 17 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““ * * * [T]he public interest in seeing that all members of the bar have an adequate education is a valid basis for an ‘accredited schools’ test, which insures that each applicant uniformly has performed the minimum required study. “Moreover, it has been well established that educational standards such as those contained in the Alaska bar rule have a rational connection with an applicant’s fitness to practice law. * * * By this means the state may be assured that attorneys have had suitable training by qualified instructors so that as lawyers they will be capable of adequately representing members of the public. The exchange of ideas between classmates and teachers, the legal knowledge, and the sense of ethics acquired through meeting requirements for graduation from an accredited law school are all reasonably related to the state’s interest in seeing that those who hold themselves out to the public as attorneys at law, and thus as officers of the court, are properly qualified.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Application of Hansen

2. “. . . a general bar examination is unfair to an experienced attorney . . . that such examinations are designed to test the knowledge of recent graduates who have just completed years of study covering a wide variety of subjects. The experienced practitioner on the other hand normally tends to specialize to a certain degree, so that over the years he no longer retains in mind details pertaining to other subjects. It thus becomes more difficult for him to pass a general bar examination as he practices longer. Applicant contends that he should be entitled to take a special “lawyer’s examination.” 3”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Application of Stephenson

3. “We have taken jurisdiction pursuant to that provision of the Alaska Constitution vesting the judicial power of the state in this court and under the rule followed by the great majority of states which holds that the supreme court of a state has the inherent and final authority to determine the standards for admission to the practice of law in that state.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Citizens Coalition for Tort Reform, Inc. v. McAlpine