Roy v. Holmes’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

18 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"The Chancellor found that the petitioners are morally fit, proper and stable parties to adopt the child. He did not make the specific finding that the respondents were unfit morally or otherwise to have the care and custody of their child. Instead, his approval of the adoption was based upon the findings that the natural parents had `duly and effectively abandoned' the child; and that it would be prejudicial to the child's welfare to remove it from the home in which it is happy and well adjusted and `place him with the natural parents and into an atmosphere the future of which is unknown and at best purely conjectural and one which, from what can be gleaned of the past in no wise recommends itself to the Court.' * * * * * * "* * * Certainly adoptions in most cases serve a laudable and beneficial purpose but where there is a choice to be made between a natural and an adopted status the welfare of the child strongly favors the former, absent strong and compelling reasons to the contrary. Parents are by no means required to face strangers to their blood on equal terms in contention for the parental rights to their children. The law is solicitous of the welfare of the child, and indeed where they are irreconcilable the welfare of the child will in proper cases be given primacy over the natural rights of the parent. Nevertheless we think that the rule quoted from the Torres case, supra, means that except in cases of clear, convincing and compelling reasons to the contrary the chi”

   5 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Meyers v. Shifrin · Prangley v. Comerford