Michael v. Hertzler’s Empirical Analysis
1995
Citation profile
42 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 42 later decisions — most recently January 2026 · most notably Roth v. Weston (2002), Loghry v. Loghry (1996)
42 state decisions — followed in 12 states
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 Stanley v. Illinois · Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District · Meyer v. State of Nebraska · Pierce v. Society of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary Same · Prince v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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 42 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
““a state derives power to adopt regulations for the well-being of its citizens from its police power. The police power is the inherent plenary power possessed by the state not only to prevent its citizens from harming one another, but to promote all aspects of public welfare.... Society clearly condones intrusions upon parental rights which are justified in the face of abuse or neglect.... The Supreme Court of the United States clearly has recognized that children are ‘persons’ within the meaning of the Bill of Rights. There the Court said: Students in school as well as out of school are ‘persons’ under our Constitution. They are possessed of fundamental rights which the State must respect, just as they themselves must respect their obligation to the State_ In our cases, the right to associate with one’s family is identified as a fundamental liberty ... We perceive this interest to be an equivalent fundamental right to that asserted by [the parent]. It is available to children , and grandparents, as well as parents, and the state has an equal duty to protect the fundamental rights of the grandparents and the children.... We conclude that, in addition to the compelling state interest attaching to the best interest of the children, the compelling state interest exists in maintaining the right of association of grandparents and grandchildren. The relative 'interests of the parties, parents, grandparents, and children must be balanced and procedural protections or safeguards must”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“We are satisfied this statute is sufficiently narrowly drawn. Only a grandparent is afforded the opportunity to file for visitation. The circumstances are limited to an instance in which the grandparent's child, who is the parent, has died or has divorced the other parent, and the person having custody has refused reasonable visitation; or an instance in which an unmarried minor grandchild has resided with the grandparent for more than six months before being returned to the custody of the grandchild's parents, and those parents have refused reasonable visitation rights. We understand weighing of the fundamental interests of the parents, grandparents, and children is not an easy task. It will be a difficult decision in many instances, but the standard incorporated in the statute, the best interest of the child, is well recognized, and the court clearly can control those rights so the rights of the parents will not be substantially impaired.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“'clearly and exactly show the unconstitutionality beyond any reasonable doubt.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage
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.