Pickett v. Brown’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
36 federal appellate · 19 district · 344 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 446 later decisions (5 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2022 · most notably Clark v. Jeter (1988), Moore v. McNamara (1986)
36 federal appellate · 19 district · 344 state decisions — followed in 34 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 Weber v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. · Trimble v. Gordon · Levy v. Louisiana Ex Rel. Charity Hospital · Mathews v. Lucas · Gomez v. Perez
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 446 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The obstacles to filing a paternity and child support suit within a year after the child’s birth, which the Court discussed in Mills, are likely to persist during the second year as well. The mother may experience financial difficulties caused not only by the child’s birth, but also by a loss of income attributable to the need to care for the child. Moreover, “continuing affection for the child’s father, a desire to avoid disapproval of family and community, or the emotional strain and confusion that often attend the birth of an illegitimate child” may inhibit a mother from filing a paternity suit on behalf of the child within two years after the child’s birth. Justice O’Connor suggested in Mills that the emotional strain experienced by a mother and her desire to avoid family or community disapproval “may continue years after the child is born.” These considerations compel a conclusion that the 2-year limitations period does not provide illegitimate children with “an adequate opportunity to obtain support.””
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“[w]e can conceive of no evidence essential to paternity suits that will be lost in only [two years], nor is it evident that the passage of months will appreciably increase the likelihood of fraudulent claims.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“legal burdens should bear some relationship to individual responsibility.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.