Free Exercise in Foster Care: Defining the Scope of Religious Rights
for Foster Children and Their Families is a case that is written about
in The University of Chicago Law Review. Chicago: Winter 2005.Vol.72,
Iss. 1;  pg. 325, 29 pgs.  The (case number?) is 848 F 2d 1347.  I
have the text of the case and the opinion of the court.  What I am
trying to figure out...and I am no law expert! is where this decision
came from.  Probably a federal circuit court?  Which one?  That's what
I need for my measly $3.00 reward.  If you find more about the actual
case other than the final opinion of the court I would take that.
Thanks so much

Hello pamelagh,

As noted in the disclaimer at the bottom of this page, answers on
Google Answers are general information, and not intended to substitute
for informed professional legal advice.  If you need professional
advice, you should contact a lawyer admitted to practice law in the
jurisdiction for which you are seeking advice.

There is no indication on the Web of a case whose citation is 848 F.2d
1347.  However, there is Wilder v. Bernstein, 848 F.2d 1338 (2d Cir.
1988).  Other cases cite it on issues of foster care and free
exercise, and it includes text on page 1347.  It is a decision from
the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.  (I have
confirmed this answer by checking LexisNexis Academic, which is
available at some academic libraries.)

"Wilder v. Bernstein" (United States Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit, Decided February 23, 1995) [citing 848 F.2d 1338 (2d Cir.
1988) in Background, section A]
FindLaw
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=2nd&navby=case&no=947322

"Hutchinson v. Spink" (United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh
Circuit, Decided September 23, 1997) [citing Wilder v. Bernstein, 848
F.2d 1338, 1342, 1346-47 (2d Cir. 1988) in part III]
FindLaw
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=7th&navby=case&no=961842

- justaskscott


Search strategy --

Searched on Google and other search engines for:

"848 F.2d 1347"
"848 F.2d 1346"
"848 F.2d 1345"
[and so on back to]
"848 F.2d 1338"

---

Request for Answer Clarification by pamelagh-ga on 01 Jul 2005 20:36 PDT

Do you think that this case is just to new to be listed in the places
you looked?  It has to exist doesn't it because the Law Journal
included the case.  Also, even if you can't find the case number I
gave (neither could I), is there something about the number that tells
you it is the 2nd curcuit court?  or are the other cases you are
siting from the 2nd circuit court?

Thanks very much for your time an effort.

---

Clarification of Answer by justaskscott-ga on 02 Jul 2005 08:24 PDT

It's actually not new -- it's from 1988.  (It's often hard to find a
pre-1990s document on the Web.  Many documents are still only in print
sources or pay databases.)  The designation "848 F.2d 1388" does not
indicate which circuit decided it.  However, "2d Cir." does -- it
indicates the Second Circuit.  Also, the Second Circuit's 1995
decision in a later stage of the Wilder v. Bernstein case, to which
I've included a link in my answer, states that the Wilder Decree was
affirmed by "this Court" in 1988, and provides the citation "aff'd ,
848 F.2d 1338 (2d Cir. 1988)."

Note: the following does not constitute legal advice.

Dear pamelagh,
I looked at the law review article you mentioned, and justaskscott was
correct.  The case cited to is in fact Wilder v. Bernstein, 848 F.2d
1388. One of the footnotes in the case cites to 848 F.2d at 1347, but
the correct citation for the case is 848 F.2d 1388 (see below).

This may help you in research.  The F in F.2d is the abbreviation for
Federal Reporter, second series.  The published cases for the U.S.
Circuit courts are printed in the Federal Reporter. If you see that
the case is published in F., F.2d, or F.3d, you know that the case is
a federal circuit court opinion.  The Federal Reporter is currently in
the third series, which would be abbrevied F.3d.  The first number
before the F.2d is the volume of the Federal Reporter in which the
case is printed.  The number after the F.2d is the page number in the
volume on which you can find the case.  I think the citation you found
should have been 848 F.2d at 1347, or 848 F.2d, 1388, 1347, which
means that the article is pointing you to something on a particular
page of the case.

As justaskscott indicated, in parentheses after the reporter
information you will find which circuit the opinion is from, in this
case, the Second Circuit.

If you go to a law library, or any library that has the federal
reporter, the library will also probably have something called
Shepard's Citations.  You can find more about it here:
http://www.lectlaw.com/files/lwr17.htm.  "Shepardizing" that case will
tell you the citations for the district court case that led up to the
circuit court case as well as any other court cases or law review
articles that reference the circuit court's opinion.

For future reference, if you see the abbreviation F. Supp., that
stands for Federal Supplement, which is the reporter that the federal
district court cases are printed in.  If you see [volume number] U.S.
[page number], that means it's a U.S. Supreme Court case.

I hope that this is helpful to you.