Arnd't v. Prose’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

6 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 6 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “"Where a writ of habeas corpus is prosecuted for the purpose of determining the right to the custody of a child, the controversy does not involve the question of personal freedom, because an infant, for humane and obvious reasons, is presumed to be in the custody of someone until it has obtained its majority. The court, in passing on the writ in a case involving the custody of a child, deals with a matter of an equitable nature; it is not bound by any mere legal right of parent or guardian, but is to give either parent's claim to the custody of the child due weight as a claim founded on human nature and generally equitable and just. Therefore, these cases are decided not on the legal right of the petitioner to be relieved from unlawful imprisonment or detention, as in the case of an adult, but on the court's view of the best interests of those whose welfare required that they be in custody of one person or another. Hence, a court is not bound to deliver the child to any claimant, but should leave it in such custody as the welfare of the child at the time appears to require. In short, although the natural rights of the parents are entitled to due consideration, the child's welfare is the supreme consideration, irrespective of the rights and wrongs of its contending parents."”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. McKinney v. Weeks