State v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 39 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 43 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[T]he husband cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given up herself in this kind unto her husband, which she cannot retract.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Weishaupt v. Commonwealth · State v. Rider

2. “the existence of the [interspousal exception under English common law] is not as obvious as the lower [court] here or courts in other jurisdictions have believed. The rule may simply not have been applicable to revocable marriages, which exist today as a result of changes in divorce laws. The fact that many jurisdictions have mechanically applied the rule, without evaluating its merits under changed conditions does not mean that such blind application was part of the "principles of the common law" adopted in this State.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Rider · 401 So. 2d 1126 - State v. Smith

3. “We believe that Hale’s statements concerning the common law of spousal rape derived from the nature of marriage at a particular time in history. Hale stated the rule in terms of an implied matrimonial consent to intercourse which the wife could not retract. This reasoning may have been persuasive during Hale’s time, when marriages were effectively permanent, ending only by death or an act of Parliament. [Citation omitted.] Since the matrimonial vow itself was not retractable, Hale may have believed that neither was the implied consent to conjugal rights. Consequently, he stated the rule in absolute terms, as if it were applicable without exception to all marriage relationships. In the years since Hale’s formulation of the rule, attitudes towards the permanency of marriage have changed and divorce has become far easier to obtain. The rule, formulated under vastly different conditions, need not prevail when those conditions have changed.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. Willis