Brewer v. Watson’s Empirical Analysis
1882
Citation profile
1 federal appellate · 19 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 25 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2017 · most notably Smith v. Wade (1983), Nixon v. Warner Communications, Inc. (1978)
1 federal appellate · 19 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 Barron v. Mason · People ex rel. Muir v. Throop · Brewer v. Watson · Brewer v. Watson · People ex rel. Bishop v. Walker
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 25 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The individual demanding access to, and inspection of public writings must not only have an interest in the matters to which they relate, a direct, tangible interest, but the inspection must be sought for some specific and legitimate purpose. The gratification of mere curiosity, or motives merely speculative will not entitle him to demand an examination of such writings”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“* * * And the individual who claims access to public records and documents ( not judicial records, of which, by statute and unvarying usage, the custodian, upon payment of the fee allowed by law, is bound to furnish copies ) can properly be required to show that he has an interest in the document which is sought and that the inspection is for a legitimate purpose. * * *”
1 later decision 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.