Ray v. Ray’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

26 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 26 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Custody decisions should not be used to punish parents for past misconduct or to award parents for exemplary behavior. The courts understand that persons are able to turn their lives around. Accordingly, custody decisions should focus on the parties’ present and anticipated circumstances, and on the parties’ current fitness to be custodians of children. The courts may and should consider past conduct to the extent that it assists in determining a person’s current parenting skills or in predicting whether a person will be capable of having custody of a child. However, the consideration of past conduct must be tempered by the realization that the persons competing for custody, like other human beings, have their own virtues and vices. Biological parents are not required to demonstrate they are perfect before they can be granted custody of their children.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. In Re CALEB L.C.