Thomas v. United States’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

46 federal appellate · 7 district · 68 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 129 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““It would be a serious breach of public faith ... to permit these informal and presumably beneficent procedures to become the basis for criminal records, which could be used to harass a person throughout his life. There is no more reason for permitting their use for such a purpose, than there would be to pry into school records or to compile family and community recollections concerning youthful indiscretions of persons who were fortunate enough to avoid the juvenile court.””

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. United States v. Canniff · Rogers v. United States

2. ““An adjudication upon the status of a child in the jurisdiction of the court does not operate to impose any of the civil disabilities ordinarily imposed by conviction, and a child is not deemed a criminal by reason of an adjudication. An adjudication is not deemed a conviction of a crime, and a child may not be charged with or convicted of a crime in any court, except as provided by section 11-1553.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Brown v. United States

3. ““The authority conferred upon the Attorney General by this section [i.e. section permitting transfers of inmates of one penitentiary or correctional institution to another] shall extend to persons committed to the National Training School for Boys, by the juvenile court of the District of Columbia, as well as to those committed by any court of the United States.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Trimble v. Stone