Abbott v. Abbott’s Empirical Analysis
2010
Citation profile
161 federal appellate · 54 district · 46 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 486 later decisions (26 by the Supreme Court) — most recently October 2025 · most notably Chafin v. Chafin (2013), Chafin v. Chafin (2013)
161 federal appellate · 54 district · 46 state decisions — followed in 14 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedAbbott v. Abbott (from Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 11601 · 42 U.S.C. § 11603
Relies on Russello v. United States · Leocal v. Ashcroft · Hertz Corp. v. Friend · Air France v. Saks · Container Corp. of America v. Franchise Tax Board
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 486 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[ (a) ] it is in breach of rights of custody attributed to a person, an institution or any other body, either jointly or alone, under the law of the State in which the child was habitually resident immediately before the removal or retention; and [ (b) ] at the time of removal or retention those rights were actually exercised, either jointly or alone, or would have been so exercised but for the removal or retention.”
10 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Convention is based on the principle that the best interests of the child are well served when decisions regarding custody rights are made in the country of habitual residence.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he Convention's central operating feature,”
7 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.