In re Scopes’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 federal appellate · 2 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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““May the State confine the mentally ill merely to ensure them a living standard superior to that they enjoy in the private community? That the State has a proper interest in providing care and assistance to the unfortunate goes without saying. But the mere presence of mental illness does not disqualify a person from preferring his home to the comforts of an institution. Moreover, while the State may arguably confine a person to save him from harm, incarceration is rarely if ever a necessary condition for raising the living standards of those capable of surviving safely in freedom, on their own or with the help of family or friends.... “May the State fence in the harmless mentally ill solely to save its citizens from exposure to those whose ways are different? One might ask if the State, to avoid public unease, could incarcerate all those who are physically unattractive or socially eccentric. Mere public intolerance or animosity cannot constitutionally justify the deprivation of a person’s physical liberty.... “In short, a State cannot constitutionally confine without more a nondangerous individual who is capable of surviving safely in freedom by himself or with the help of willing and responsible family members or friends.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 551 F. Supp. 1298 - Project Release v. Prevost

2. ““Substantive due process requires that the continued confinement of an individual must be based upon a finding that the person to be committed poses a real and present threat of substantial harm to himself or others.... Such criteria would authorize the continued confinement of an individual whose mental illness manifests itself in neglect or refusal to care for himself where such neglect or refusal presents a threat of substantial harm to his own well-being.... What due process does proscribe, in our view, is the continued involuntary commitment of a nondangerous individual who is capable of surviving safely in freedom by himself or with the help of willing and able family members.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 551 F. Supp. 1298 - Project Release v. Prevost