State ex rel. Black’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[The mother’s] reasoning [that the episode that precipitated the juvenile proceeding was an isolated one, that the evidence does not show that the abuse of the child was a usual thing, and that she had no previous knowledge that the child was or might have been abused and only learned after the fact of the abuse] is specious. A one time, very minor traffic violation calls the authority’s attention to the driver of an offending vehicle. He is obviously driving while intoxicated. Must the court restrict its inquiry to the minor traffic violation? Very often the single instance of abuse or neglect that catches the official eye and offends the official conscience is only the tip of the iceberg. Fortunately for little girls like [this child], the legislature of this State has enacted legislation which empowers the Juvenile Court to institute protective action. The fact that this one instance of abuse (assuming that it was the only one) puts the various applicable statutes into operation in [the child’s] behalf is a tribute to the simple majesty of the law. The inexorable response of the law to [this child’s] plight is not based upon the number of times that she has been abused, but upon the fact that she has been abused at all. The fact of that incident has provoked an inquiry which has resulted in the finding that she was not only abused but is neglected and requires protection not only from the abuse of [her caretaker] but from the neglect of [her mother].”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State ex rel. H.M.