Peterson v. Borst’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “While it can seldom be predicted with confidence at the time that a Justice addresses himself to the issue of disqualification whether or not the Court in a particular case will be closely divided, the disqualification of one Justice of this Court raises the possibility of an affirmance of the judgment below by an equally divided Court. The consequence attending such a result is, of course, that the principle of law presented by the case is left unsettled. The undesirability of such a disposition is obviously not a reason for refusing to disqualify oneself where in fact one deems himself disqualified, but I believe it is a reason for not, “bending over backwards” in order to deem one’s self disqualified.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Indiana Gas Co. v. Indiana Finance Authority

2. “A judge should disqualify himself or herself in a proceeding in which the judge's impartiality might reasonably be questioned. . . .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Johnson v. Johnson