McGee v. Bartow’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

10 federal appellate · 13 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 27 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““Likewise, when a particular diagnosis is not accepted or is explicitly rejected by the DSM or other authoritative sources, that factor is a highly relevant consideration for the factfinder. In either situation, however, the factfinder has the ultimate responsibility to assess how probative a particular diagnosis is on the legal question of the existence of a ‘mental disorder’; the status of the diagnosis among mental health professionals is only a step on the way to that ultimate legal determination. The methodology and the outcome of any mental health evaluation offered as evidence is a proper subject for cross-examination, and we would expect that, in the ordinary case, such efforts would expose the strengths and weaknesses of the professional medical opinions offered.” (Emphasis in original.) McGee, 593 F.3d at 576 .”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 401 Ill. App. 3d 903 - In Re Detention of Lieberman

2. “[T]here must be proof of serious difficulty in controlling behavior. And this, when viewed in light of such features of the case as the nature of the psychiatric diagnosis, and the severity of the mental abnormality itself, must be sufficient to distinguish between the dangerous sexual offender whose serious mental illness, abnormality, or disorder subjects him to civil commitment from the dangerous but typical recidivist convicted in an ordinary criminal case.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Brown v. Watters

3. “a medical diagnosis can be based on so little evidence that bears on the controlling legal criteria that any reliance upon it would be a violation of due process. Therefore, a particular diagnosis may be so devoid of content, or so near-universal in its rejection by mental health professionals, that a court’s reliance on it to satisfy the “mental disorder” prong of the statutory requirements for commitment would violate due process.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. Brown v. Watters