United States v. Rabinowitz’s Empirical Analysis
339 U.S. 56 · 1950
Citation profile
2,221 federal appellate · 180 district · 1,763 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 4,903 later decisions (200 by the Supreme Court) — most recently February 2025 · most notably Wong Sun v. United States (1963), Katz v. United States (1967)
2,221 federal appellate · 180 district · 1,763 state decisions — followed in 49 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. A case is still cited after being overruled — to note the reversal, distinguish it, or in dissent. 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedUnited States v. Rabinowitz (from Second Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Carroll v. United States · Johnson v. United States · Boyd v. United States · Weeks v. United States
Cited together with Harris v. United States · Carroll v. United States · Brinegar v. United States · Agnello v. United States · Johnson 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 4,903 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The judgment of the officers as to when to close the trap on a criminal committing a crime in their presence or who they have reasonable cause to believe is committing a felony is not determined solely upon whether there was time to procure a search warrant. Some flexibility will be accorded law officers engaged in daily battle with criminals for whose restraint criminal laws are essential.”
102 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.””
19 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[i]t is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people.”
11 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Florida v. Riley · Kopf v. Skyrm
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.