Wales v. Whitney’s Empirical Analysis
114 U.S. 564 · 1885
Citation profile
169 federal appellate · 37 district · 31 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 448 later decisions (51 by the Supreme Court) — most recently May 2025 · most notably Braden v. 30th Judicial Circuit Court of Kentucky (1973), McNally v. Hill (1934)
169 federal appellate · 37 district · 31 state decisions — followed in 14 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Berlin Road
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 448 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“* * * [C]hildren withheld from the proper parent * * * may * * * become proper subjects of relief by the writ of habeas corpus.”
12 later decisions quote this exact passage“`who has the immediate custody of the party detained, with the power to produce the body of such party before the court or judge.'”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“allege the facts concerning the applicant's commitment or detention, the name of the person who has custody over him and by virtue of what claim or authority, if known.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.