Ex Parte Ryan’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

21 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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Civil contempt is for the protection of a party to the litigation, the party for whose benefit the order, judgment or decree was entered. Its function is to provide a coercive means to compel the other party to the litigation to comply with relief granted to his adversary.... “Criminal contempt on the other hand does not serve the function of aiding a litigant in achieving the relief granted but is for the purpose of protecting the dignity of the court.... The power of criminal contempt springs not from the needs to protect a litigant, but from the inherent power of the courts to protect the judicial system....””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Lomax v. Merritt

2. “A direct contempt occurs in the immediate presence of the court or so near as to interrupt its proceedings. If the judge certifies that he or she saw the conduct constituting contempt, a direct contempt may be punished summarily. An indirect contempt arises from an act outside the court that tends to degrade or make impotent the authority of the court or to impede or embarrass the administration of justice.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Lomax v. Merritt