2007 Pa. Super. 217 - Commonwealth v. Pratt’s Empirical Analysis
2007
Citation profile
16 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 16 later decisions — most recently March 2026
16 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Terry v. Ohio · Pennsylvania v. Mimms · Maryland v. Wilson · Brendlin v. California · Commonwealth v. Edmunds
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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[These provisions] protect[ ] individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures, thereby insuring the right of each individual to be let alone. Evidence obtained from an unreasonable search or seizure is inadmissible at trial. To secure the right of citizens to be free from such intrusions, courts in Pennsylvania require law enforcement officers to demonstrate ascending levels of suspicion to justify their interactions with citizens as those interactions become more intrusive. The first of these [interactions] is a 'mere encounter' (or request for information) which need not be supported by any level of suspicion, but carries no official compulsion to stop or respond. The second, an 'investigative detention' must be supported by reasonable suspicion; it subjects a suspect to a stop and period of detention, but does not involve such coercive conditions as to constitute the functional equivalent of arrest. Finally, an arrest or 'custodial detention' must be supported by probable cause. A forcible stop of a motor vehicle by a police officer constitutes a seizure of a driver and the occupants; this seizure triggers the protections of the Fourth Amendment. An officer is permitted to stop a motor vehicle to investigate a vehicle code violation which he or she observed.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“eliminate the possibility of a passenger, who has an obvious connection to the vehicle's driver, from distracting or otherwise interfering with an officer engaged in a traffic stop.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage“the public interest in promoting the safety of police officers outweighs the marginal intrusion on personal liberty.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage
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.