Cooey v. Kasich’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 1 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 10 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “the former claim sufficiently targets that sweeping core deviations would at least burden Plaintiffs fundamental right by negating some of the precise procedural safeguards that this Court and the Sixth Circuit heralded in prior discussions of Eighth Amendment claims in this same litigation. For present purposes, it does not matter whether there is a qualifying risk of severe pain-a conclusion rejected by the only medical expert who testified-but only the creation of unequal treatment impacting the fundamental protection involved.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Ohio Execution Protocol Litigation · In re Ohio Execution Protocol Litigation

2. “In [the Smith ] Opinion and Order, this Court noted that “[t]he core components of the written protocol as set forth in the [then applicable] incarnation of the execution protocol are adequate even if capable of further refinement. It is only Ohio’s implementation of these core components that is often grossly and inexplicably inadequate.” Such flawed implementation manifested itself in what this Court described as four core deviations: (1) Ohio fails to document the preparation of the execution drugs, (2) Ohio fails to follow formalized procedures designed to ensure adequate preparation for the administration of drugs by IV, (3) Ohio fails to adhere to systemic redundancies that would minimize if not eliminate the possibility of human error, (4) Ohio fails to exercise control over who participates in an execution. The overarching issue underlying all of these problems was that Defendants perceived that they were free to ignore their own protocol due to convenience, pragmatism, or incompetence, which meant that Ohio would ignore the constitutional restraints on state actors’ conduct. Things have changed. It does not matter to this Court whether Ohio has acted motivated by admirable intent or whether it has been begrudgingly dragged toward respectability. What matters is that as a result of state action, the written protocol is now binding, the possibility of variations from less core components has been curtailed and such variations now run to one decision-maker, and the poss”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Ohio Execution Protocol Litigation

3. “The Sixth Circuit has explained the class of one approach: When a plaintiff does not allege that the government’s actions burden a fundamental right or target a suspect class, the plaintiff is said to proceed on a so-called “class of one” theory and must prove that the government’s actions lacked any rational basis. Radvansky, 395 F.3d at 312 . Under rational basis scrutiny, government action amounts to a constitutional violation only if it “is so unrelated to the achievement of any combination of legitimate purposes that the court can only conclude that the government’s actions were irrational.” Warren v. City of Athens, 411 F.3d 697, 710 (6th Cir.2005). A “plaintiff may demonstrate that the government action lacks a rational basis ... either by negativing every conceivable basis which might support the government action, or by demonstrating that the challenged government action was motivated by animus or ill-will.” Id. at 711 ; see also TriHealth, Inc., 430 F.3d at 788 (citing Warren, 411 F.3d at 710 ). Under rational basis review, the defendant “has no obligation to produce evidence to sustain the rationality of its actions; its choice is presumptively valid and ‘may be based on rational speculation unsupported by evidence or empirical data.’ ” Id. at 790 (quoting Fed. Comm. Comm’n v. Beach Comm., Inc., 508 U.S. 307, 315 , 113 S.Ct. 2096 , 124 L.Ed.2d 211 (1993)). The burden falls squarely to the plaintiff, who must overcome the presumption of rationality by alleging that ”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In re Ohio Execution Protocol Litigation