Hughes v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district · 58 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 60 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It is our opinion that the legislature, in making it a crime to be in ‘actual physical control of a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicating liquor,’ intended to enable the drunken driver to be apprehended before he strikes. As was stated in the case of State v. Harold, 74 Ariz. 210 , 246 P.2d 178 (1952): “ ‘. . .It appears to us to be even more important for the legislature to prevent operators of cars who are under the influence of intoxicating liquors or who are at the time driving recklessly and in wilful and wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property, from entering upon the highways and into the stream of traffic than to permit them to enter thereon and after a tragic accident has happened to punish them for maiming or causing the death of those who are lawfully in the use of such highways. “We believe that an intoxicated person seated behind the steering wheel of a motor vehicle is a threat to the safety and welfare of the public. The danger is less than where an intoxicated person is actually driving a vehicle, but it does exist.””

   27 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Garcia v. Schwendiman · State v. Starfield

2. “'directing influence, domination[,] or regulation,'”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Mason v. State · State v. Suarez

3. “[NJumerous courts have defined actual physical control to mean existing or present bodily restraint, directing influence, domination or regulation of any vehicle, a definition apparently not including movement, as several of the courts applying the definition have specifically pointed out. Other definitions of actual physical control ... include the following: actual physical control is not limited to a moving vehicle, but means either the management of the movements of the machinery of a motor vehicle or the management of the movement of the vehicle itself; being in actual physical control means more than the ability to stop an automobile; it means the ability to keep from starting, to hold in subjection, to exercise directing influence over, and the like; and actual physical control requires that a person be in the driver’s seat of the vehicle, behind the steering wheel, in possession of the ignition key, and in such condition that he is physically capable of starting the engine and causing the vehicle to move.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Lawrence · 457 So. 2d 1070 - Griffin v. State