Clark v. Wade’s Empirical Analysis
2001
Citation profile
105 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 105 later decisions — most recently February 2025 · most notably Fish v. Fish (2008), Evans v. McTaggart (2004)
105 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 Santosky v. Kramer · Stanley v. Illinois · Troxel v. Granville · Meyer v. State of Nebraska · Pierce v. Society of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary Same
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 105 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“(1) the parent is a fit person entitled to custody, (2) a fit parent acts in the best interest of his or her child, and (3) the child's best interest is to be in the custody of a parent.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage“[p]arents have a constitutional right under the United States and Georgia Constitutions to the care and custody of their children.”
5 later decisions quote this exact passage“as found in OCGA § 29-2-8 (b) must be interpreted to mean that the third party must prove by clear and convincing evidence that the child will suffer physical or emotional harm if custody were awarded to the biological parent by terminating the temporary guardianship. Once this showing is made, the third party must then show that continuation of the temporary guardianship will best promote the child's welfare and happiness.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.