Commonwealth v. Torres’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 district · 80 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 84 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[w]hen the police are justified in stopping an automobile for a routine traffic violation, they may, for their safety and the safety of the public, order the driver or the passengers to leave the automobile, but only if they have a reasonable belief that their safety, or the safety of others, is in danger.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1121 - Commonwealth v. Tinsley

2. “Once the officer reasonably concluded that his safety or that of other persons was at risk, and ordered the occupants to step out of the vehicle, it followed that it was proper for him to conduct a patfrisk for weapons before proceeding further”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1130 - Commonwealth v. Castillo

3. “a carefully limited search of the outer clothing of [a detained person who poses a safety threat] in an attempt to discover weapons which might be used to assault [the officer].”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Mass. App. Ct. 1106 - Commonwealth v. Perez