Watson v. Shepard’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[The] juvenile court order relieved the mother of [the child’s] custody and awarded her custody to the Shepards. That order was not merely pro forma, as the mother now contends, but it was based upon her voluntary relinquishment of custody, as evidenced by a written statement executed by her, upon results of a thorough investigation, and upon a hearing by a court of competent jurisdiction at which the report of investigation was considered and the evidence heard. Consequently, the mother’s parental custody rights were altered and for her to be entitled to a later change in custody, the burden was upon her to show the circumstances had so changed since entry of the foregoing order that it would be in [the child’s] best interests to transfer custody to her; the burden was not upon the Shepards, as the mother argues, to show parental unfitness.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Warren P. Denise v. Philip C. Tencer

2. “we are not satisfied adoption by this couple, while they are divorcing, will be in Judy's best interests”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Browder v. Harmeyer