Chimel v. California’s Empirical Analysis
1969
Citation profile
3,244 federal appellate · 500 district · 7,019 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 12,587 later decisions (205 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2026 · most notably Schneckloth v. Bustamonte (1973), United States v. Leon (1984)
3,244 federal appellate · 500 district · 7,019 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 Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Terry v. Ohio · Katz v. United States · Carroll v. United States · Mapp v. Ohio
Cited together with Terry v. Ohio · United States v. Rabinowitz · Katz v. United States · Coolidge v. New Hampshire · Carroll 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 12,587 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“the area from within which he might gain possession of a weapon or destructible evidence.”
461 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.”
37 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“where it is not practicable to secure a warrant because the vehicle can be quickly moved out of the locality or jurisdiction in which the warrant must be sought.”
15 later decisions 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.