Muth v. Frank’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

28 federal appellate · 3 district · 10 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 60 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[I]n Muth I the Court of Appeals stated that it agreed with the decision of the trial court that Muth did not have a privacy right to have sexual intercourse with his sister. It also decided, however, that it did not have to reach the conclusion reached by the trial court because it had already decided that the state could prohibit incestuous relationships in an earlier case — State v. Allen M. Muth I, slip op. at 2 (“Because we have already concluded that the State has a compelling interest in prohibiting incest, we reject Muth’s challenges to the constitutionality of the incest statute.”). Muth argues that the Court of Appeals did not adjudicate the merits of his claim because the court in Allen M. did not consider the criminal statute at issue here. Instead, Allen M. considered Wisconsin’s statute that permits the termination of parental rights where the children are the product of an incestuous relationship. Allen M., 571 N.W.2d at 876. Muth thus argues that the Court of Appeals misread or misapplied its earlier decision in Allen M. According to Muth, Allen M. dealt with a different statute and did not stand for the proposition the court in Muth I suggested it did. Because the Court of Appeals relied solely on Allen M. to decide Muth I, and Allen M. did not resolve the claim under Wis. Stat. § 944.06 at issue in Muth I, according to Muth, Muth I was not an adjudication on the merits.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Malinowski v. Smith

2. “Given, therefore, the specific focus in Lawrence on homosexual sodomy, the absence from the Court’s opinion of its own “established method” for resolving a claim that a particular practice implicates a fundamental liberty interest, and the absence of strict scrutiny review, we conclude that Lawrence did not announce a fundamental right of adults to engage in all forms of private consensual sexual conduct.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. State v. David Aaron Knutsen

3. “AEDPA’s requirement that a petitioner’s claim be adjudicated on the merits by a state court is not an entitlement to a well-articulated or even a correct decision by a state court. In fact, several circuits have held that a state court need not offer any reasons and summarily dispose of a petitioner’s claim and that summary disposition would be an adjudication on the merits, (emphasis in original)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Weaver v. Bowersox