Chrisman v. Bruce’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. ““This court has, however, adopted a more equitable and consistent rule, and which more adequately protects such officers in the faithful discharge of their duties. In passing upon the qualifications_ of a person offering to vote, the judge of the election acts judicially, and is not unfrequently called upon to determine legal questions of great difficulty and doubt. To hold him responsible, in such cases, for a mere error of judgment by which a citizen may have been illegally deprived of his right to vote, would be unjust in principle and unwise in policy; for the natural result would be to deter honest and capable men from accepting an office attended with such hazards. Hence, in the case of Morgan v. Dudley, 18 B. Mon. [693] 711 [ 68 Am. Dec. 735 ], the rule was distinctly announced and acted upon, that, as every human tribunal was liable to err, no judge, even of the most inferior one, should be held responsible for a mere error of judgment committed in the regular discharge of his official duties, and that, although the judge of an election may err in determining upon the legality of a vote offered to be given, and thus reject a legally qualified voter; yet if the decision was the result of a mere error of judgment, and was not induced by improper motives, no action can be maintained on account of such erroneous decision.”'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Reynolds v. Perkins