Thomas v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

14 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 14 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Assuming that the defendant had some reasonable expectation of privacy with regard to the envelope because of the absence of notice informing him that the contents would be inspected ... no “probable” cause or “reasonable suspicion” that the envelope contained contraband, escape plans, etc., need be shown. Rather, the question is whether this type of search is justified by the institution’s legitimate concern for security. There can be little doubt that it is so justified. A detention center or correctional institution clearly has a reasonable security interest in knowing what one inmate is communicating or sending to another. Although we believe it would be preferable for jails, detention centers and correctional institutions in this State to inform inmates, by regulation, posted notice or otherwise, concerning inspection of inmate to inmate correspondence, nevertheless whatever privacy expectations the defendant Thomas may have had regarding the sealed envelope were outweighed by the legitimate security needs of the detention center.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 184 Md. App. 716 - Sparkman v. State · McFarlin v. State

2. “Preliminarily, we ... disagree with the Court of Special Appeals, regarding the scope of the detention center’s regulation. By use of the terms “mail,” “incoming” and “outgoing,” it would seem that the regulation was designed to deal with correspondence sent from inmates, via the United States Postal Service, to persons outside of the institution, and correspondence sent from persons outside of the institution, via the Postal Service, to inmates. This is confirmed by references in the regulation to the addresses of the parties, and the provision for the return to the sender of inappropriate “incoming mail.” It is further confirmed by the distinction drawn between the two types of mail, with outgoing mail being allowed to be sealed, whereas all incoming mail is subject to inspection before delivery to the inmate. Moreover, this is the view of the warden, who promulgated the regulation. Consequently, we do not believe that the defendant knew or should have known, based on the regulation, that the envelope given to a guard for hand delivery to another inmate was subject to being opened and the contents read. Rather, the case must be treated as one where there was no regulation or practice made known to the inmates regarding correspondence between inmates in the institution.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 184 Md. App. 716 - Sparkman v. State

3. “Although we believe that it would be preferable for jails ... to inform inmates, by regulation, posted notice or otherwise, concerning inspection of inmate to inmate correspondence, nevertheless, whatever privacy expectations the defendant Thomas may have had regarding the sealed envelope were outweighed by the legitimate security needs of the detention center. The absence of a regulation covering the matter does not, in our judgment, make the inspection and reading of correspondence from one inmate to another an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Jeffers