United States v. Combs’s Empirical Analysis
379 F.3d 564 · 2004
Citation profile
36 federal appellate · 6 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 68 later decisions — most recently April 2023 · most notably 223 Ill. 2d 109 - People v. McCarty (2006), Clark v. Capital Credit & Collection Services, Inc. (2006)
36 federal appellate · 6 state decisions
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.
Relationships
Applies 21 U.S.C. § 802 (§ 102 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 841 (§ 401 of the Controlled Substances Act)
Relies on Jackson v. Virginia · United States v. Young · Koon v. United States · Chapman v. United States · Commissioner v. Brown
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 68 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a result contrary to the statute's purpose or lead to unreasonable results.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[Law enforcement officials] believed at that time [i.e., August 21, 2001] that they were going to find a clandestine methamphetamine lab in [Combs's machine shop], and when they didn't they were — they had to have tombstones in their eyes, tombstones in their eyes. [¶] . . . [¶] The agents here, their job isn't on the line. No, they aren't going to get fired. You don't get terminated, but you don't keep getting promotions when you go into homes or business establishments after an 18-month investigation and you find nothing. That's not the way to make friends and influence your superiors in the private sector or the government sector.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“Most of all, ladies and gentlemen, you have to believe that Special Agent Kent Bailey is a liar. If you believe the defendant’s version of events, you have to believe that Special Agent Kent Bailey walked up to that witness stand, swore to tell you the truth, and perjured himself. You have to believe that Special Agent Kent Bailey flushed his ten-year career down the toilet. For what? For a nice old grandfatherly man? Why would he do that? That makes no sense. Special Agent Bailey may not get fired for participating in a search warrant where there was no meth lab, but you can be darn sure he would get fired for perjuring himself.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.