Spence v. Durham’s Empirical Analysis
1973
Citation profile
56 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 56 later decisions — most recently September 2018 · most notably Stanback v. Stanback (1975), 107 N.C. App. 71 - Ramirez-Barker v. Barker (1992)
56 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 People of State of New York Halvey v. Halvey · Cary Manufacturing Company v. Acme Flexible Clasp Company · Shepherd v. Shepherd · Stanback v. Stanback · Thomas v. Thomas
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 56 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[I]t is said: “It is universally recognized that the mother is the natural custodian of her young. ... If she is a fit and proper person to have the custody of the children, other things being equal, the mother should be given their custody, in order, that the children may not only receive her attention, care, supervision, and kindly advice, but also may have the advantage and benefit of a mother’s love and devotion for which there is no substitute. A mother’s care and influence is regarded as particularly important for chib dren of tender age and girls of even more mature years.””
3 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.