Montoya v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

12 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 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The statute does not define mouth and we have not found any case law defining mouth as used in the statute.... A “mouth” is “the cavity bounded externally by the lips and internally by the pharynx that encloses in the typical vertebrate the tongue, gums, and teeth.” WebsteR’s New Collegiate DictionaRY (9th ed. 1985). If we limit mouth to the cavity containing the tongue, gum, and teeth, then we defeat the intent of the statute because a cavity cannot make contact with another object or person as required under the statute. Common sense and common usage leads us to conclude that the legislature intended the word “mouth” to include its parts, such as teeth and tongue.”

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