448 Pa. Super. 621 - Commonwealth v. Wright’s Empirical Analysis
1996
Citation profile
37 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 37 later decisions — most recently May 2017 · most notably 2000 Pa. Super. 315 - Commonwealth v. Beasley (2000), Juniata Valley Bank v. Martin Oil Co. (1999)
37 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Relies on Terry v. Ohio · Florida v. Bostick · Alabama v. White · Shiomos v. STATE EMP. RETIREMENT BD. · Foster v. Mutual Fire, Marine & Inland Insurance
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 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[ W]hen the police stop a vehicle in this Commonwealth for investigatory purposes, the vehicle, and its occupants are considered “seized” and this seizure is subject to constitutional restraints. An investigatory stop of an automobile is justified only when it is based upon objective facts creating a reasonable suspicion the vehicle’s occupants are presently involved in criminal activity. To meet this standard, the officer must point to specific articulable facts which, together with the rational inferences therefrom, reasonably warrant the intrusion. To have reasonable suspicion, police officers need not personally observe the illegal or suspicious conduct, but may rely upon the information of third parties, including “tips” from citizens. Naturally, if a tip has a relatively low degree of reliability more information will be required to establish the requisite quantum of suspicion.... However, a tip from a known informer may carry enough indicia of reliability for the police to conduct an investigative stop, even though the same tip from an anonymous informant would likely not have done so. Indeed, a known informant places himself at risk of prosecution for filing a false claim if the tip is untrue, whereas as unknown informant faces no such risk.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“Reasonable suspicion, like probable cause, is dependent upon both the content of information possessed by police and its degree of reliability. Both factors — quantity and quality — are considered in the “totality of the circumstances — the whole picture,” that must be taken into account when evaluating whether there is reasonable suspicion. Thus, if a tip has a relatively low degree of reliability, more information will be required to establish the requisite quantum of suspicion than would be required if the tip were reliable.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Commonwealth v. Lohr“appellant has failed to indicate [on appeal] whether his seizure was in violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution, or both Constitutions. For the sake of judicial economy, we will analyze this case under both Constitutions.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.