Bell v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
254 F.2d 82 · 1958
Citation profile
89 federal appellate · 13 district · 68 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 184 later decisions — most recently May 2012 · most notably Klingler v. United States (1969), Bailey v. United States (1967)
89 federal appellate · 13 district · 68 state decisions — followed in 14 states
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
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 3052
Relies on Carroll v. United States · Brinegar v. United States · United States v. Di Re · Mallory v. United States · Trupiano v. United States
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 184 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a reasonable, cautious and prudent peace officer”
19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““Because many situations which confront officers in the course of executing their duties are more or less ambiguous, room must be allowed for some mistakes on their part. But the mistakes must be those of reasonable men, acting on facts leading sensibly to their conclusions of probability. The rule of probable cause is a practical, nontechnical conception affording the best compromise that has been found for accommodating these often opposing interests. Requiring more would unduly hamper law enforcement. To allow less would be to leave law-abiding citizens at the mercy of the officers’ whim or caprice.” Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160 , 176, 69 S.Ct. 1302 , 1311, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949).”
3 later decisions 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.