Thompson v. Thompson, Aka Clay

Decided January 12, 1988. Thurgood Marshall delivered the opinion of the Court.

Docket 86-964 · 484 U.S. 174 (1988) · Cited 671 times

Holding

The PKPA does not provide an implied cause of action in federal court to determine which of two conflicting state custody decisions is valid.

The Court’s statement of the holding, from the opinion’s syllabus. The syllabus is prepared by the Reporter of Decisions and is not part of the opinion of the Court — read the official opinion for authority.

How the Justices voted

Decided 8–0.

“Concurring” means agreeing with the outcome; any split shown is the Court’s judgment, not each Justice’s reasoning. Source: the Supreme Court Database (Spaeth et al.), Washington University.

Precedents cited

Supreme Court decisions this opinion relies on, ordered by how often it cites each. Cases in our collection link through; others are named.

• Cort v. Ash · 422 U.S. 66 (1975)
• Cannon v. University of Chicago · 441 U.S. 677 (1979)
• Touche Ross & Co. v. Redington · 442 U.S. 560 (1979)
• Transamerica Mortgage Advisors, Inc. v. Lewis · 444 U.S. 11 (1979)
• California v. Sierra Club · 451 U.S. 287 (1981)
• Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith, Inc. v. Curran · 456 U.S. 353 (1982)
• Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. Transport Workers Union · 451 U.S. 77 (1981)
• Daily Income Fund, Inc. v. Fox · 464 U.S. 523 (1984)
• Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance v. Russell · 473 U.S. 134 (1985)
• Immigration & Naturalization Service v. Chadha · 462 U.S. 919 (1983)
• Middlesex County Sewerage Authority v. National Sea Clammers Assn. · 453 U.S. 1 (1981)
• J. I. Case Co. v. Borak · 377 U.S. 426 (1964)
• Texas Industries, Inc. v. Radcliff Materials, Inc. · 451 U.S. 630 (1981)
• New York Ex Rel. Halvey v. Halvey · 330 U.S. 610 (1947)
• Universities Research Assn., Inc. v. Coutu · 450 U.S. 754 (1981)
• Ford v. Ford · 371 U.S. 187 (1962)

Cited by

Later Supreme Court opinions in our collection that cite this case.

• Alexander v. Sandoval · 532 U.S. 275 (2001)
• Lampf, Pleva, Lipkind, Prupis & Petigrow v. Gilbertson · 501 U.S. 350 (1991)
• Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools · 503 U.S. 60 (1992)
• Wilder v. Virginia Hospital Assn. · 496 U.S. 498 (1990)
• Bowen v. Massachusetts · 487 U.S. 879 (1988)
• Virginia Bankshares, Inc. v. Sandberg · 501 U.S. 1083 (1991)
• Karahalios v. National Federation of Federal Employees, Local 1263 · 489 U.S. 527 (1989)
• Hubbard v. United States · 514 U.S. 695 (1995)

Official text

Read the official opinion (U.S. Reports, govinfo.gov)

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Source: Supreme Court of the United States, slip opinions (1988). Citation count from the Free Law Project’s CourtListener bulk data. Data last verified 2026-07-03. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).