Michael v. Gerald D’s Empirical Analysis
1989
Citation profile
152 federal appellate · 36 district · 735 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,164 later decisions (36 by the Supreme Court) — most recently June 2025 · most notably County of Sacramento v. Lewis (1998), Albright v. Oliver (1994)
152 federal appellate · 36 district · 735 state decisions — followed in 44 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 Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth · Mathews v. Eldridge · Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank & Trust Co. · Goldberg v. Kelly · Roe v. Wade
Cited together with Stanley v. Illinois · Lehr v. Robertson · Moore v. City of East Cleveland · Santosky v. Kramer · Meyer v. State of Nebraska
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 1,164 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“not the stuff of which fundamental rights qualifying as liberty interests are made”
37 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence“`so rooted in the traditions and conscience of our people as to be ranked as fundamental.'”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“... his interest in personal contact with his child acquires substantial protection under the Due Process Clause. At that point it may be said that he”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.