Wolfe v. Footen’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

1 district ·

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

1. “Assuming, as we must, that Wolfe’s testimony is accurate, the objective unreasonableness of the officers’ behavior is readily apparent. Any threat presented by the unarmed Wolfe had largely abated by the time he was handcuffed. Even if the officers initially imagined Wolfe’s exclamation, accompanied by a “tug” on his handcuffs, to be potentially dangerous resistance, that did not warrant Officer Footen holding him down and elbowing him while Officer Routzahn choked him with his boot, kicked him twice, stomped on his face, and struck him multiple times with his service flashlight.... Given Wolfe’s evident helplessness, his laughter, use of profanity, and “insinuation” that he might spit, also did not justify the amount of force used against him. The fact that Wolfe explicitly assured the officers that then-blows were unnecessary in light of his preexisting injuries underscores the unreasonableness of their behavior.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 953 F. Supp. 2d 627 - Wolfe v. Routzahn