Peterson v. Peterson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

24 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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The grandparents and great-grandparents of an unmarried minor may be granted reasonable visitation rights to the minor by the district court upon a finding that visitation would be in the best interests of the minor and would not interfere with the parent-child relationship .... An application for visitation rights under this section may be considered by the district court in conjunction with a divorce proceeding involving the parent of the minor child. If any district court of this state retains jurisdiction over the custodial placement of the minor child or children by virtue of any prior proceedings, the rights conferred by this section may be enforced by the grandparents or the great-grandparents through motion under the prior proceeding. If no district court otherwise has jurisdiction, a proceeding to enforce grandparental rights may be brought against the custodial parent as a civil action and venued in the county of residence of the minor child.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. D.P.O. v. N.H. · In Re DPO

2. “The grandparents of an unmarried minor must be granted reasonable visitation rights ... to the minor ... by the district court upon application by the grandparents ... unless a finding is made that visitation is not in the best interests of the minor. Visitation rights of grandparents to an unmarried minor are presumed to be in the best interests of the minor.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hoff v. Berg · In Interest of M.G.

3. “In applying NDCC 14-09-05.1 to these circumstances, the court must carefully consider [the mother’s] constitutional right[] as [these children’s responsible] parent[] to raise [them] as [she] reasonably see[s] fit. The court ordered [grandparent] visitation[ ] imposed on this family [unit], if any, must not unduly interfere with [her] reasonable parental choices. The lower court must cautiously apply the statute, bearing in mind that a statute must be construed in harmony with the constitution[al right of the responsible parent] to avoid constitutional infirmities.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Sposato v. Sposato