United States of America, v. Terrell L. Thompson,’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 federal appellate · 4 district · 6 state decisions

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

1. “If an informant places his anonymity at risk, a court can consider this factor in weighing the reliability of the tip. An instance where a tip might be considered anonymous but nevertheless sufficiently reliable to justify a proportionate police response may be when an unnamed person driving a car the police officer later describes stops for a moment and, face to face, informs the police that criminal activity is occurring. This too seems to be different from the tip in the present case.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. United States v. Dotson · United States v. Holmes

2. “the police themselves observed [the defendant] engaging in suspicious conduct”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Jones · United States v. Holmes

3. “To ask more of the police in these circumstances ... might well preclude them from interceding before the suspect has accomplished his violent, perhaps lethal, purpose.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. United States v. Holmes