McMorris v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
22 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 22 later decisions — most recently June 2001
22 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 Grayned v. City of Rockford · Connally v. General Construction Co. · Thornhill v. Alabama · United States v. Harriss · 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 22 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“It is a basic principle of due process that an enactment is void for vagueness if its prohibitions are not clearly defined. Vague laws offend several important values. First, because we assume that man is free to steer between lawful and unlawful conduct, we insist that laws give the person of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to know what is prohibited, so that he may act accordingly. Vague laws may trap the innocent by not providing fair warning. Second, if arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement is to be prevented, laws must provide explicit standards for those who apply them. A vague law impermissibly delegates basic policy matters to policemen, judges, and juries for resolution on an ad hoc and subjective basis, with the attendant dangers of arbitrary and discriminatory application ...”
1 later decision quote this exact passage““A statute is void for vagueness if it fails to give a person of ordinary intelligence fair notice that his contemplated conduct is forbidden by the statute, Papaehristou v. City of Jacksonville, 405 U.S. 156 , 92 S.Ct. 839 , 31 L.Ed.2d 110 (1972); United States v. Harriss, 347 U.S. 612 , 74 S.Ct. 808 , 98 L.Ed.2d 989 (1953), and if it encourages arbitrary and erratic arrests and convictions. Papachristou v. City of Jacksonville, supra; Thornhill v. Alabama, 310 U.S. 88 , 60 S.Ct. 736 , 84 L.Ed.2d 1093 (1940); Herndon v. Lowrey, 301 U.S. 242 , 57 S.Ct. 732 , 81 L.Ed.2d 1066 (1937). A clear and precise statute may nevertheless be overbroad if in its reach it prohibits constitutionally protected conduct.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Parr v. State““It is no defense to prosecution under this section that the arrest or search was unlawful.””
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. Humphreys v. State
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.