Schneckloth v. Bustamonte’s Empirical Analysis
1973
Citation profile
5,375 federal appellate · 1,402 district · 9,562 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 21,008 later decisions (223 by the Supreme Court) — most recently January 2026 · most notably United States v. Leon (1984), Edwards v. Arizona (1981)
5,375 federal appellate · 1,402 district · 9,562 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
reviewedRobert Bustamonte v. Merle R. Schneckloth, Superintendent, California Conservation Center (from Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Relies on Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Terry v. Ohio · Erie Co v. Tompkins · Glasser v. United States · Katz v. United States
Cited together with Terry v. Ohio · Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Bumper v. North Carolina · United States v. Mendenhall · Katz 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 21,008 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[T]he question whether a consent to a search was in fact 'voluntary' or was the product of duress or coercion, express or implied, is a question of fact to be determined from the totality of all the circumstances.”
530 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Voluntariness is a question of fact to be determined from all the circumstances, and while the subject's knowledge of a right to refuse is a factor to be taken into account, the prosecution is not required to demonstrate such knowledge as a prerequisite to establishing a voluntary consent.”
165 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“subject only to a few specifically established and well-delineated exceptions.”
103 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.