Brown v. Com.’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

101 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 101 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “be established solely on the observation of material which can be used for legitimate purposes, even though the experience of an officer indicates that such material is often used for illegitimate purposes. To support a finding of probable cause, such observations must be combined with some other circumstance indicating criminal activity.”

   4 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 49 Va. App. 294 - Moore v. Commonwealth · Buhrman v. Com.

2. “We have considered a number of instances in which an officer's expertise and training made his observation of an item suspected to contain contraband a significant factor in the probable cause analysis.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Harris v. Com. · 48 Va. App. 243 - McLaughlin v. Commonwealth

3. “Whether an officer has probable cause to arrest an individual in the absence of a warrant is determined under an objective test based on a reasonable and trained police officer's view of the totality of the circumstances.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bristol v. Commonwealth