magistrate
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 214 U.S. 1 - Compton v. State of Alabama · 1909Most cited · 169 citing opinions
In a general sense a magistrate is a public civil officer, possessing such power—legislative, executive, or judicial—as the government appointing him may ordain. In a narrow sense, a magistrate is regarded—perhaps, commonly regarded—as an inferior judicial officer, such as a justice of the peace.
How often courts cite the case defining “magistrate”
Court decisions citing the opinion that defined “magistrate” — 169 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining case as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.