Wood v. Ryan’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 federal appellate · 2 district · 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 13 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “No one doubts that [the plaintiff] “has a strong interest in being executed in a constitutional manner.” Beaty v. Brewer, 649 F.3d 1071 , 1072 (9th Cir. 2011). But the right asserted by [the plaintiff] differs from the constitutional challenges often raised by inmates facing execution. The First Amendment right of public access inheres in all of the members of the public, and not just the inmate who has been sentenced to death.... It is not self-evident that the First Amendment right will be irreparably harmed if that information is not disclosed before [the plaintiffs] execution, but is instead disclosed only if the view espoused by [the plaintiff] ultimately prevails after the case is fully litigated. Whatever benefit society derives from being able to discuss who made the drug and who injected it would presumably still inure to the public if that conversation oc curred after [the plaintiff] has been executed.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Phillips v. DeWine