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← 15 F.4th 116 - French v. Merrill

French v. Merrill’s Empirical Analysis

2021

Citation profile

28
cited by 28 later decisions
1
states following
February 2025
most recently cited

23 district · 2 state decisions

Relationships

Applies 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act))

Relies on Illinois v. Gates · Anderson v. Creighton · Payton v. New York · Pearson v. Callahan · Malley v. Briggs

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

  1. “gives government officials breathing room to make reasonable but mistaken judgments, and protects all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law.”
    1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
  2. “the unconstitutionality of the officer's conduct [is] beyond debate in light of an existing principle of law.”
    1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
  3. “Probable cause is based on the totality of the facts and circumstances . . . .”
    1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority

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.