Lau v. Kiley’s Empirical Analysis
563 F.2d 543 · 1977
Citation profile
16 federal appellate · 1 district ·
How this case has been cited
Cited by 39 later decisions — most recently June 2025 · most notably Kui Rong Ma v. Ashcroft (2004), Kaliski v. District Director of Immigration & Naturalization Service (1980)
16 federal appellate · 1 district ·
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 Fiallo Ex Rel. Rodriguez v. Bell · Estate of Lund · The Lessee of Henry Brewer v. Jacob Blougher · Stevenson's v. Sullivant
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 39 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“: (A) a legitimate child; (C) a child legitimated under the law of the child's residence or domicile, or under the law of the father's residence or domicile, whether in or outside the United States, if such legitimation takes place before the child reaches the age of eighteen years and the child is in the legal custody of the legitimating parent or parents at the time of such legitimation. The term”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“There must be some purpose in the distinction the law makes between legitimate children and illegitimate children. The distinction must have some effect and must have been designed to distinguish between the two categories in or der that they have different rights or obligations. Whether a child is born in wedlock or out of wedlock may be sociologically, religiously, or psychologically significant, but there is no legal significance unless the law makes one.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Iracheta v. Holder“primarily designed to further the [Act's] basic objective of reuniting families and also to attract to this country aliens with needed skills.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Kaho v. Ilchert
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.