Roberts v. McNary’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

40 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 43 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Counties ... are hereby prohibited from levying any tax, license or fees, not authorized by law, charter or self-enforcing provisions of the constitution when this section is adopted ... without the approval of the required majority of the qualified voters of that county or other political subdivision voting thereon.””

   7 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. St. Louis County v. Hanne · Keller v. Marion County Ambulance District

2. ““The setting of attorneys’ fees is within the sound discretion of the trial court and should not be reversed unless the award is arbitrarily arrived at or is so unreasonable as to indicate indifference and lack of proper judicial consideration_ In the absence of evidence to the contrary, it is presumed that the allowance of attorneys’ fees was for compensable services and that no allowance was made for non-compensa-ble services.... Thus, the burden was on appellants to affirmatively establish that the compensation allowed was a clear or manifest abuse of sound judicial discre-tion_ Moreover, in the absence of contrary evidence, the trial court is presumed to know the character of the services rendered in duration, zeal and ability, and to know the value of them according to custom, place and circumstance.... ””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Van Black · Architectural Resources, Inc. v. Rakey

3. “‘Taxes are “proportional contributions imposed by the state upon individuals for the support of government and for all public needs” ... Taxes are not payments for a special privilege or a special service rendered ... Fees or charges prescribed by law to be paid by certain individuals to public officers for services rendered in connection with a specific purpose ordinarily are not taxes ... unless the object of the requirement is to raise revenue to be paid into the general fund of the government to defray customary governmental expenditures ... rather than compensation of public officers for particular services rendered_’”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Zahner v. City of Perryville · City of Bridgeton v. Northwest Chrysler-Plymouth, Inc.