Root v. Allen’s Empirical Analysis
1962
Citation profile
49 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 49 later decisions — most recently August 2007 · most notably Paquette v. Paquette (1985), In Re Guardianship of Williams (1994)
49 state decisions
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 Wilson v. Mitchell · Coulter v. Coulter · Devlin v. Huffman · Emerson v. Emerson · Walcott v. Walcott
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 49 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“"That if [the child] were to return to [the natural father], if she were to leave [her psychological father] with whom she has lived for these years, the effect would be very damaging. The natural ties between parents and children do not endure unless they are nurtured. It is unmistakably important that children have a sense of continuity, or otherwise stated, that they are unable [sic] to avoid the damages which result from serious separations. This need that a child has for continuity, the need to avoid separation, is particularly marked at certain times in life."”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. In Re ELMC · C.R.S. v. T.A.M.“when the power of the court is invoked to place an infant into the custody of its parents and to withdraw such child from other persons, the court will scrutinize all the circumstances and ascertain `if a change of custody would be disadvantageous to the infant'”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. In Re ELMC“[t]he law is equally well settled that in custody proceedings the welfare and best interests of the children is the paramount consideration.”
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.