Thompson v. A Thompson a’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 federal appellate · 6 district · 1 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. “In Bell , the Supreme Court explained: Jurisdiction, therefore, is not defeated, as respondents seem to contend, by the possibility that the averments might fail to state a cause of action on which petitioners could actually recover. For it is well settled that the failure to state a proper cause of action calls for a judgment on the merits and not for a dismissal for want of jurisdiction. Whether the complaint states a cause of action on which relief could be granted is a question of law and just as issues of fact it must be decided after and not before the court has assumed jurisdiction over the controversy. If the court does later exercise its jurisdiction to determine that the allegations in the complaint do not state a ground for relief, then dismissal of the case would be on the merits, not for want of jurisdiction.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re Christopher Dwayne Larch Frederick Rocky Larch. Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Frederick Wilfred Larch v. Ina Quinn Larch · Larch v. Larch

2. “A court of a State may modify a determination of the custody of the same child made by a court of another State, if— (1) it has jurisdiction to make such a child custody determination; and (2) the court of the other State no longer has jurisdiction, or it has declined to exercise such jurisdiction to modify such determination. (Emphasis added.)”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Meade v. Meade · Leyda v. Roach

3. “The PKPA was adopted primarily to reduce the incentive for parental child-snatching created by refusal of a significant number of states to give effect to the child custody decrees of other states. Prior to enactment of the PKPA, a parent who lost a custody battle in one state had every incentive to snatch the child and move to another state to relitigate the custody issue. Often the snatcher would be rewarded with a favorable custody decree notwithstanding the existence of a conflicting custody decree from the original state. [Footnote omitted.] Such forum shopping was possible because states were not bound by the child custody decrees of sister states. It was not clear that the Full Faith and Credit Clause applied to custody determinations, see Ford v. Ford, 371 U.S. 187, 192 , 83 S.Ct. 273, 276 , 9 L.Ed.2d 240 (1962), and even if it did, a state was bound by the prior custody decree of another state only to the extent that the courts of the state entering the decree would be bound, id. at 194 , 83 S.Ct. at 277 . Because the state entering the decree might modify it freely as conditions affecting the child changed, the courts of another state were free to modify a child custody decree in the same way. Id. at 191 n. 2, 83 S.Ct. at 275 n. 2. [Footnote omitted.] In an attempt to deal with the problem, a number of states enacted the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA), 9 U.L.A. §§ 1-28 (1979), which established standards for selecting the appropriate state forum to d”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Leyda v. Roach