Megel v. Commonwealth’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

29 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 29 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The Fourth Amendment to the Federal Constitution provides that “the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” Therefore, warrantless searches are per se unreasonable, subject to a few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions, and the Commonwealth has the heavy burden of establishing an exception to the warrant requirement.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 41 Va. App. 704 - Smith v. Commonwealth

2. “society is not prepared to recognize as legitimate any subjective expectation of privacy that a prisoner might have in his prison cell and that, accordingly, the Fourth Amendment proscription against unreasonable searches does not apply within the confines of the prison cell.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 53 Va. App. 519 - GHEORGHIU v. Commonwealth

3. “Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals will be reversed and, because the Court declined to consider the issue of consent and the issue is not before us as an assignment of error, the case will be. remanded to the Court of Appeals for consideration thereof.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hudson v. Director of the Department of Corrections