Simmons v. Simmons’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

15 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 15 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Article I, Section 8 of the Tennessee Constitution protects the privacy interest of these parents in their child-rearing decisions, so long as their decisions do not substantially endanger the welfare of their children. Absent some harm to the child, we find that the state lacks a sufficiently compelling justification for interfering with this fundamental right. When applied to married parents who have maintained continuous custody of their children and have acted as fit parents, we conclude that court interference pursuant to T.C.A. § 36-6-301 constitutes an unconstitutional invasion of privacy rights under the Tennessee Constitution.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Ellison v. Ellison

2. “In light of this right to privacy, we believe that when no substantial harm threaten's a child's welfare, the state lacks a sufficiently compelling justification for the infringement on the fundamental right of parents to raise their children as they see fit.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. In Re Askew

3. “Since the record shows that the threshold issue — danger of substantial harm^ — has not been established, the appellant and the adoptive father are entitled to constitutional protection of their parental rights.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Ellison v. Ellison