Kirksey v. City of Jackson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 federal appellate · 1 district ·

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

1. “In their application for rehearing, appellants challenge our decision on the question of judicial inquiry into the motivation of the voters in the referendum election. Our opinion, 663 F.2d 659 (5th Cir.) holds that an individual voter may not be subjected to judicial examination concerning how he voted or why he personally voted in that fashion. We affirm that conclusion. However, we specially note that our decision is not to be misunderstood as holding or suggesting that, in a proper case, the motivation of the electorate may not be examined by the introduction of either direct or circumstantial evidence. The latter inquiry may be a proper inquiry. The referendum process may not be used to legitimate an unconstitutional act. See Hunter v. Erickson, 393 U.S. 385 , 89 S.Ct. 557 , 21 L.Ed.2d 616 (1969); Reitman v. Mulkey, 387 U.S. 369 , 87 S.Ct. 1627 , 18 L.Ed.2d 830 (1967); Lucas v. Colorado General Assembly, 377 U.S. 713 , 84 S.Ct. 1459 , 12 L.Ed.2d 632 (1964). The record in the case before us does not establish that type of abuse of the electoral process.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Jordan v. City of Greenwood