Whitewood v. Wolf’s Empirical Analysis
2014
Citation profile
5 federal appellate · 6 district · 3 state decisions
Relationships
Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))
Relies on City of Cleburne Texas v. Cleburne Living Center · Brown et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka et al. · Turner v. Safley · Griswold v. State of Connecticut · San Antonio Independent School District v. Rodriguez
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.
“It is hereby declared to be the strong and longstanding public policy of this Commonwealth that marriage shall be between one man and one woman. A marriage between persons of the same sex which was entered into in another state or foreign jurisdiction, even if valid where entered into, shall be void in this Commonwealth.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[TJhis Court is not only moved by the logic that the fundamental right to marry is a personal right to be exercised by the individual, but also rejects Defendants’ contention that concepts of history and tradition dictate that same-sex marriage is excluded from the fundamental right to marry. The right Plaintiffs seek to exercise is not a new right, but is rather a right that these individuals have always been guaranteed by the United States Constitution. As aptly explained by the Supreme Court in Lawrence [v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558, 578-79 , 123 S.Ct. 2472 , 156 L.Ed.2d 508 (2003) ]: Had those who drew and ratified the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth Amendment or the Fourteenth Amendment known the components of liberty in its manifold possibilities, they might have been more specific. They did not presume to have this insight. They knew times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper in fact serve only to oppress. As the Constitution endures, persons in every generation can invoke its principles in their own search for greater freedom.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“due to the significant doctrinal developments in the four decades that have elapsed since it was announced by the Supreme Court.”); Geiger v. Kitzhaber, 994 F.Supp.2d 1128 , 1133 n. 1 (D.Or.2014) (”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Waters v. Ricketts
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.