State v. . Heaton’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 federal appellate ·

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

1. ““Upon the arraignment of the defendant, he filed a plea in abatement, alleging that George N. Harris, one of the ,12 grand jurors who found the indictment, was disqualified because he had not paid tax for the preceding year, as required by Code Civ. Proc. § 229. Upon this plea, an issue was made by the state, upon the trial of which it appeared in evidence that the juror had paid a part of said tax, and that the sheriff was enjoined by an action from collecting the residue of the tax for that year, of this juror and other citizens of the county, and that the injunction was not vacated until after the time for collecting the tax of that year had expired, and that in fact the residue of the tax had not been paid at the time of the trial. Upon this state of facts, the court held that Harris was a competent juror. We concur in that opinion. “It does not appear at whose instance the injunction was obtained, but suppose it had extended to all the taxpayers, and that in consequence none had paid the tax of the preceding year. Could it be held that this failure operated as a suspension of the criminal law of the state? The statute must, if possible, receive a reasonable construction not inconsistent with the public welfare. The failure to pay the tax was not the juror’s voluntary act, but was caused by the act of the court in suspending its collection. It nowhere appears but that the juror was able, ready, and willing to pay the tax, and in fact he had paid all that the law, as then ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Breese v. United States