Terry v. Ohio’s Empirical Analysis
1968
Citation profile
12,224 federal appellate · 2,476 district · 35,919 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 61,435 later decisions (455 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2026 · most notably Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents of Federal Bureau of Narcotics (1971), Schneckloth v. Bustamonte (1973)
12,224 federal appellate · 2,476 district · 35,919 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.
Relationships
Relies on Wong Sun v. United States · Katz v. United States · Carroll v. United States · Mapp v. Ohio
Cited together with Adams v. Williams · Katz v. United States · Wong Sun v. United States · United States v. Mendenhall · Florida v. Royer
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 61,435 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“must be able to point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant that intrusion.”
2,878 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“of persons. Only when the officer, by means of physical force or show of authority, has in some way restrained the liberty of a citizen may we conclude that a”
271 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“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.”
264 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How later courts have treated this case
Across 157 classified citations — whether each later court relied on, limited, or rejected this decision:
- 88followed
- 35cited without characterization
- 34explained
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.