Messerli v. State’s Empirical Analysis
1980
Citation profile
1 district · 22 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 23 later decisions — most recently November 2020
1 district · 22 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on New York Times Co. v. Sullivan · Buckley v. Valeo · Griswold v. State of Connecticut · Cantwell v. State of Connecticut · National Association for Advancement of Colored People v. State of Alabama Patterson
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 23 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““[t]he need for an informed electorate applies with full force to ballot issues. Such issues are often complex and difficult to understand. Proper evaluation of the arguments made on either side can often be assisted by knowing who is backing each position. We have long recognized in court proceedings the importance of revealing to the decision maker the biases and motives of witnesses.... Similarly, a ballot issue is often of great importance financially to its pro ponents or opponents, or both, and multimillion dollar advertising campaigns have been waged. In such circumstances the voter may wish to cast his ballot in accordance with his approval, or disapproval, of the sources of financial support.””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“[D]isclosure requirements deter actual corruption and avoid the appearance of corruption by exposing large contributions and expenditures to the light of publicity. This exposure may discourage those who would use money for improper purposes either before or after the election. A public armed with information about a candidate's most generous supporters is better able to detect any post election special favors that may be given in return... . [N]ot least significant, record keeping, reporting, and disclosure requirements are an essential means of gathering the data necessary to detect violations of the contribution limitations... .”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“The right of the people to privacy is recognized and shall not be infringed.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.