415 Pa. Super. 313 - Commonwealth v. Peterfield’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

16 state decisions

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 16 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “... a lower Pennsylvania court may treat an analogous state constitutional claim as a matter of independent constitutional interpretation. . . .”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. State v. Catlett · 427 Pa. Super. 1 - Commonwealth v. Carroll

2. “In Hodari, plain-clothed officers were patrolling a high crime section of Oakland, California, when they spotted several youths congregated around a car which was parked on a curb. Upon seeing the officers’ unmarked car, the group took flight in different directions. With suspicions aroused, the officers pursued the youths. During a foot chase between Hodari and one officer, Hodari tossed a small rock-like object, and was thereafter tackled and handcuffed. A pager and $130 in cash were found on Hodari, and the abandoned property was determined to be crack cocaine. At trial, Hodari’s motion to suppress the evidence was denied. On appeal, the appellate court reversed, finding that Hodari had been seized at the time he abandoned the property, and the seizure was in violation of the Fourth Amendment. On certiorari to the Supreme Court, California conceded that the officers did not have the requisite reasonable suspicion to stop Hodari. However, the state argued that the more appropriate inquiry was whether Hodari had been seized when he abandoned the property where the officer’s attempt to stop Hodari had been unsuccessful. The court adopted California’s argument and permitted the inquiry to overstep a question of whether reasonable suspicion existed for a Terry stop, where such attempted stop was thwarted by a fleeing suspect. The opinion, authored by Justice Scalia, utilized a common law approach to the question of seizure and arrest and reasoned that a seizure had not occurred”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. 423 Pa. Super. 549 - In the Interest of Barry W.

3. “1) text of the Pennsylvania constitutional provision; 2) history of the provision, including Pennsylvania case-law; 3) related case-law from other states; 4) policy considerations, including unique issues of state and local concern, and applicability within modern Pennsylvania jurisprudence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 429 Pa. Super. 576 - In the Interest of S.D.