Nutter v. Dougherty’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

41 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 47 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Before relating the background of this case, it is necessary to establish, in broad strokes, the principle of state preemption of local lawmaking authority and its several forms. In Department of Licenses and Inspections, Board of License and Inspection Review v. Weber, 394 Pa. 466 , 147 A.2d 326 (1959), this Court explained two of the three closely related forms of preemption as follows: Of course, it is obvious that where a statute specifically declares it has planted the flag of preemption in a field, all ordinances on the subject die away as if they did not exist. It is also apparent that, even if the statute is silent on supersession, but proclaims a course of regulation and control which brooks no municipal intervention, all ordinances touching the topic of exclusive control fade away into the limbo of ‘innocuous desuetude.’ Id. at 327. In addition to those two forms of preemption, respectively “express” and “field preemption,” there is also a third, “conflict preemption,” which acts to preempt any local law that contradicts or contravenes state law. See Mars Emergency Medical Servs. v. Township of Adams, 559 Pa. 309 , 740 A.2d 193, 195 (1999) (citing, inter alia, W. Pennsylvania Rest. Ass’n v. Pittsburgh, 366 Pa. 374 , 77 A.2d 616 , 619-620 (1951))....”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Holt's Cigar Co., Inc. v. City of Philadelphia · Good v. Zoning Hearing Board of Heidelberg Township

2. “Weber presented the question whether the state Beauty Culture Act precluded Philadelphia from passing additional licensure requirements for beauticians in its municipal Health Code. There as here, the act in question itself was silent as to local supplementation, and that omission, appellee argued, was tantamount to an affirmation of the General Assembly's preemptive intent. We rejected this argument, relying in part on the Commonwealth's parallel Barber Act. The two acts, we noted, had initially been passed in tandem in 1931, at which time neither statute addressed local supplementation. Soon after the Barber Act's passage, however, a trial court deemed it to have preemptive effect over local regulation in that field. The General Assembly, in 1935, responded by revising the Barber Act to specifically provide that "[n]othing contained in this act, or the act to which this [is] an amendment, shall be construed as prohibiting any municipality from adopting appropriate ordinances, not inconsistent with ... this act...." 147 A.2d at 328 . We found this language probative of the legislature's original intent, in passing the parallel 1931 acts, to leave the fields of barbering and cosmetology open to local supplementation.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Holt's Cigar Co., Inc. v. City of Philadelphia

3. “The Legislature could not be expected to itemize the last towel and drop of antiseptic which, for sanitation and cleanliness, would be required in every barber and beauty shop in the State. The size of the municipality, congestion of population, geography of locale, weather and climate prevailing in the area could have a very decided bearing on the extent of the meticulousness of the sanitary supervision required in any particular group of shops. It would not be unnatural to assume that regulations could be stricter and more rigid in large cities where the turnover in clientele would be comparatively rapid as against a village or small rural center where the customers are known by their first name, occupation and frequency of visit.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Holt's Cigar Co., Inc. v. City of Philadelphia