Commonwealth v. Blevines’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

28 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 28 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “A search conducted incident to an arrest may be made only for the purposes of seizing fruits, instrumentalities, contraband and other evidence of the crime for which the arrest has been made ... and removing any weapons that the arrestee might use to resist arrest or effect his escape.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. 94 Mass. App. Ct. 635 - Commonwealth v. Darosa · 92 Mass. App. Ct. 587 - Commonwealth v. Barbosa

2. “only (1) for the purpose of seizing evidence of the crime for which the arrest has been made in order to prevent its destruction or concealment or (2) for the purpose of removing any weapon the person arrested might use to resist arrest or to escape.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Carter

3. “There was no evidence that the police had any basis for suspecting that any contraband, or other evidence of criminal activity, would be found in the automobile”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 92 Mass. App. Ct. 587 - Commonwealth v. Barbosa