Commonwealth v. Garden’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 district · 43 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 45 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““There is no question that in many cases involving searches of automobiles, probable cause to search extends to every area within the vehicle, including the trunk. The facts of this case, however, require a different conclusion, because the odor detected by the officers was not the odor of raw marijuana, which might reasonably suggest the defendant was engaged in selling or transporting the drug, but rather the odor of burnt marijuana, suggesting that the defendant, or others in the car, had been smoking marijuana in the not too distant past. Simply from detecting the odor of burnt marijuana on the clothes of the car’s occupants — most of whom he had seen enter the car a very short time before — the officer could not reasonably have inferred that burning, recently burned, or even raw marijuana would be found in the trunk. Accordingly, the search of the trunk was beyond the scope permitted by art. 14 or the Fourth Amendment.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Degray · Commonwealth v. Long

2. “of Article 14 and the Fourth Amendment.’ Commonwealth v. Roland R., 448 Mass. 278, 281 (2007). Accordingly, a valid search is limited to ‘any area, place, or container reasonably capable of containing the object of the search.’ Commonwealth v. Signorine, 404 Mass. 400, 405 (1989).”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 25 Mass. L. Rptr. 161 - Commonwealth v. Lacroix

3. “the perception by a police officer with training and experience in narcotics detection of a strong, fresh odor of burnt marijuana emerging from a motor vehicle provide[s] probable cause to search the vehicle”

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