Griffith v. Lunney’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 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 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[t]he law and public policy favor matrimony, and when the celebration of a marriage is once shown, the contract of marriage, the capacity of the parties, and, in fact, everything necessary to the validity of the marriage, in the absence of proof to the contrary, will be presumed. It will be presumed that the person assuming to officiate at the ceremony was authorized to perform it, and that a license was properly issued. This presumption of legality is said to be one of the strongest known to the law, especially where the legitimacy of children is involved, for the law presumes morality, and not immorality; marriage, and not concubinage; legitimacy, and not bastardy.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Griffin v. Beddow · Pinkhasov v. Petocz