Watson v. Holder’s Empirical Analysis
643 F.3d 367 · 2011
Citation profile
3 federal appellate ·
Relationships
Applies 8 U.S.C. § 1101 (§ 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)) · 8 U.S.C. § 1431 (§ 320 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter))
Relies on National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. v. Brand X Internet Services · United States v. Jacobson · Lau v. Kiley · Butt v. Gonzales · CLAHAR
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 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“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“(1) [T]he burden is on [plaintiff] to establish that he is indeed an American citizen, and (2) previous precedent of the BIA, specifically Matter of Hines, 24 I. & N. Dec. 544, 547 (BIA 2008), establishes that children born out of wedlock — as [plaintiff] concedes he was — are generally not treated as “legitimate” under Jamaican law, meaning that [plaintiff] cannot be considered the “child” of his American father for purposes of [ 8 U.S.C. § 1101 (c)(1) ].”
1 later decision 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.