445 Pa. Super. 129 - Commonwealth v. Richardson’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 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 3 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In the instant case[,] we do not have before us a statutory or regulatory framework nor an agreement by the [parolee] consenting to the search. Thus, we are confronted with the issue left unaddressed by Griffin. We hold therefore that the fourth amendment prohibits the warrantless search of probationers or parolees’ residences based upon reasonable suspicion without the consent of the owner or without a statutory or regulatory framework governing the search. We do so because we recognize that there are no safeguards to protect the limited fourth amendments rights of probationers and parolees if their supervision is left entirely to the discretion of individual parole officers. In the traditional fourth amendment case, the warrant requirement based upon probable cause and issued by a neutral and detached magistrate guarantees the protection of a citizen’s constitutional rights. Similarly, in the context of a probationer or parolee’s limited fourth amendment rights, some systemic procedural safeguards must be in place to guarantee those limited fourth amendment rights. In the absence of any statutory or regulatory framework, or an agreement explicitly setting out the rights of the [parolee] and the authority of the state to supervise the [parolee], we are constrained to conclude that the actions of these parole officers violated the fourth amendment.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Scott v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation & Parole