Ward v. Maryland’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

27 federal appellate · 23 district · 119 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 371 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Attempt will not be made to define the words ‘privileges and immunities/ or to specify the rights which they are intended to secure and protect, beyond what may be necessary to the decision of the case before the court. Beyond doubt those words are words of very comprehensive meaning, but it will be sufficient to say that the clause plainly and unmistakably secures and protects the right of a citizen of one State to pass into any other State of the Union for the purpose of engaging in lawful commerce, trade, or business without molestation; to acquire per sonal property; to take and hold real estate; to maintain actions in the courts of the State; and to be exempt from any higher taxes or excises than are imposed by the State upon its own citizens.””

   10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Blake v. McClung · Travis v. Yale & Towne Manufacturing Co.

2. ““The citizens of each state shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several states.””

   8 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Williams v. Bruffy · Chalker v. Birmingham & Northwestern Railway Co.

3. ““By these sections, read together, we have this result: the agent for the sale of articles manufactured in other states must first obtain a license to sell, for which he is required to pay a specific tax for each, county in which he sells or offers to sell them; while the agent for the sale of articles manufactured in the state, if acting for the manufacturer, is not required to obtain a license or pay any license tax. Here there is a clear discrimination in favor of home manufacturers and against the manufacturers of other states. Sales by manufacturers are chiefly effected through agents. A tax upon their agents when thus engaged is, therefore, a tax upon them, and if this is made to depend upon the foreign character of the articles, that is, upon their having been manufactured without the state, it is to that extent a regulation of commerce in the articles between the states. It matters not whether the tax be laid directly upon the articles sold or in the form of licenses for their sale. If by reason of their foreign character the state can impose a tax upon them or upon the person through whom the sales are effected, the amount of the tax will be a matter resting in her discretion. She may place the tax at so high a figure as to exclude the introduction of the foreign article and prevent competition with the home product. It was against legislation of this discriminating kind that the framers of the Constitution intended to' guard when they vested in Congress the power to”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Bacon v. Locke