Davis v. Schnell’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

36 federal appellate · 2 district · 3 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 80 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"It, thus, clearly appears that [the Boswell] Amendment was intended to be, and is being used for the purpose of discriminating against applicants for the franchise on the basis of race or color. Therefore, we are necessarily brought to the conclusion that the Amendment to the Constitution of Alabama, both in its object and the manner of its administration, is unconstitutional, because it violates the Fifteenth Amendment. While it is true that there is no mention of race or color in the Boswell Amendment, this does not save it. " (Emphasis supplied.)”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Gomillion v. Lightfoot · Baskin v. Brown

2. “"As pointed out, `understand' may mean to interpret. [Louisiana uses both words.] This meaning requires an exceedingly high, if not impossible, standard. The distinguished Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States have frequently disagreed in their interpretations of various articles of the Constitution. We learn from history that many of the makers of the Constitution did not understand its provisions; many of them understood and believed that its provisions gave the Supreme Court no power to declare an act of Congress unconstitutional. An understanding or explanation given by the Supreme Court a few years ago as to the meaning of the commerce clause does not apply today. Among our most learned judges there are at least four different understandings and explanations of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution as to whether it made the first eight Amendments applicable to state action. Such a rigorous standard * * * illustrates the completeness with which any individual or group of prospective electors, whether white or Negro, may be deprived of the right of franchise by boards of registrars inclined to apply this one of the innumerable meanings of such an indefinite phrase. * * *" 81 F.Supp. at 877-878 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 225 F. Supp. 353 - United States v. State of Louisiana

3. “To state it more plainly, the board has the right to reject one applicant and accept another, depending solely upon whether it likes or dislikes the understanding and explanation offered. To state it even more plainly, the board, by the use of the words `understand and explain,' is given the arbitrary power to accept or reject any prospective elector that may apply, or, to use the language of Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 366 , 6 S.Ct. 1064, 1069 , 30 L.Ed. 220 , these words `actually do confer, not a discretion to be exercised upon a consideration of the circumstances of each case, but a naked and arbitrary power to give or withhold consent * * *.' * * * Such arbitrary power amounts to a denial of the equal protection of the law within the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution * * *.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 225 F. Supp. 353 - United States v. State of Louisiana