Brimmer v. Thomson’s Empirical Analysis
1974
Citation profile
1 district · 73 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 75 later decisions — most recently December 2025 · most notably Washakie County School District Number One v. Herschler (1980), Vreeland v. Byrne (1977)
1 district · 73 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 Williams v. Rhodes · Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections Butts · Kramer v. Union Free School District No. 15 · Cipriano v. City of Houma · Rasmussen v. Baker
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 75 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“1. The parties have existing and genuine, as distinguished from theoretical, rights or interests. 2. The controversy must be one upon which the judgment of the court may effectively operate, as distinguished from a debate or argument evoking a purely political, administrative, philosophical or academic conclusion. 3. It must be a controversy the judicial determination of which will have the force and effect of a final judgment in law or decree in equity upon the rights, status or other legal relationships of one or more of the real parties in interest, or, wanting these qualities to be of such great and overriding public moment as to constitute the legal equivalent of all of them. 4. The proceedings must be genuinely adversary in character and not a mere disputation, but advanced with sufficient militancy to engender a thorough research and analysis of the major issues.”
21 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“The question of great public importance rests with this court, Kellner v. District Court In and For City and County of Denver, 127 Colo. 320 , 256 P.2d 887, 888 . This exception must be applied with caution and its exercise must be a matter where strict standards are applied to avoid the temptation to apply the judge's own beliefs and philosophies to a determination of what questions are of great public importance.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“certainly have a genuine and existing right to seek election for public office for which they have proper qualifications.”
2 later decisions 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.