Levitsky v. Levitsky’s Empirical Analysis
1963
Citation profile
39 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 39 later decisions — most recently November 2019 · most notably Schowgurow v. State (1965), Garay v. Overholtzer (1993)
39 state decisions — followed in 10 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 Reynolds v. States · Torcaso v. Watkins · United States v. Cotton Valley Operators Committee · Hopkins v. State · Craig v. State
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 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““... all persons are equally entitled to protection in their religious liberty; wherefore, no person ought by any law to be molested in his person or estate, on account of his religious persuasion, or profession, or for his religious practice, unless, under the color of religion, he shall disturb the good order, peace or safety of the State, or shall infringe the laws of morality, or injure others in their natural, civil or religious rights; nor ought any person to be compelled to frequent, or maintain, or contribute, unless on contract, to maintain, any place of worship, or any ministry ...””
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[WJhether or not the mother should be permitted to have custody of these children in view of her refusal, because of her religious beliefs, to permit her son to have blood transfusions when competent medical doctors deemed such treatment essential to save his life, and because of her announced intention to adhere to the same view, if such a situation should again arise with regard to any of the children.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Where ... there is a serious danger to the life or health of a child as a result of the religious views of a parent, the rule seems to be recognized in other jurisdictions which have considered the question that this may bar custody by the parent holding such views, or may call for protection against such views by an appropriate order.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Kirchner v. Caughey
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.