Spinelli v. United States’s Empirical Analysis
1969
Citation profile
3,305 federal appellate · 386 district · 7,006 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 12,151 later decisions (81 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2025 · most notably Illinois v. Gates (1983), United States v. Leon (1984)
3,305 federal appellate · 386 district · 7,006 state decisions — followed in 50 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
reviewedSpinelli v. United States (from Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Mapp v. Ohio · Aguilar v. Texas · Brinegar v. United States · Jones v. United States
Cited together with Aguilar v. Texas · Jones v. United States · United States v. Ventresca · Draper v. United States · Illinois v. Gates
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 12,151 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“In the absence of a statement detailing the manner in which the information was gathered, it is especially important that the tip describe the accused's criminal activity in sufficient detail that the magistrate may know that he is relying on something more substantial than a casual rumor circulating in the underworld or an accusation based merely on an individual's general reputation.”
329 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'underlying circumstances' necessary to enable the magistrate independently to judge . . . the validity of the informant's conclusion”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Brown v. Nelson · State v. Romero“[If an informant's] report ... purports to be first-hand observation, remaining doubt centers on the honesty of the informant, and that worry is dissipated by the officer's previous experience with the informant.”
24 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
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.