Wong Sun v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1963
Citation profile
6,408 federal appellate · 1,273 district · 12,603 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 24,158 later decisions (230 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Terry v. Ohio (1968), Illinois v. Gates (1983)
6,408 federal appellate · 1,273 district · 12,603 state decisions — followed in 50 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.
Appellate journey
reviewedWong Sun v. United States (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 26 U.S.C. § 7237
Relies on Carroll v. United States · Brinegar v. United States · Jones v. United States · Johnson v. United States
Cited together with Terry v. Ohio · Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Brown v. Illinois · Jones v. United States · Brinegar 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 24,158 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“whether, granting establishment of the primary illegality, the evidence to which instant objection is made has been come at by exploitation of that illegality or instead by means sufficiently distinguishable to be purged of the primary taint.”
855 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[t]he quantum of information which constitutes probable cause — evidence which would “warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief” that a felony has been committed, Carroll v. United States, 267 U.S. 132 , 162 [, 45 S.Ct. 280 , 288, 69 L.Ed. 543 ] — must be measured by the facts of the particular case.”
68 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.”
25 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Riddick v. State · State v. Davis
How later courts have treated this case
Across 95 classified citations — whether each later court relied on, limited, or rejected this decision:
- 42explained
- 25followed
- 25cited without characterization
- 3distinguished
Treatment is classified from each citing court's own sentence. This is a running sample — coverage grows as the classification pass proceeds; overrulings are also tracked authoritatively in the case status.