Illinois v. Lafayette’s Empirical Analysis
1983
Citation profile
481 federal appellate · 146 district · 901 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,955 later decisions (39 by the Supreme Court) — most recently August 2025 · most notably Hudson v. Palmer (1984), Michigan v. Long (1983)
481 federal appellate · 146 district · 901 state decisions — followed in 45 states
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 Chimel v. California · Delaware v. Prouse · United States v. Ross · New York v. Belton · Dunaway v. New York
Cited together with South Dakota v. Opperman · Colorado v. Bertine · Terry v. Ohio · Katz v. United States · Florida v. Wells
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 1,955 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“The reasonableness of any particular governmental activity does not necessarily or invariably turn on the existence of alternative `less intrusive' means.”
35 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“At the stationhouse, it is entirely proper for the police to remove and list or inventory property found on the person or in the possession of an arrested person who is to be jailed. A range of governmental interests supports an inventory process. It is not unheard of for persons employed in police activities to steal property taken from arrested persons; similarly, arrested persons have been known to make false claims regarding what was taken from their possession at the stationhouse.... Examining all the items removed from the arrestee’s person or possession and listing or inventorying them is an entirely reasonable administrative procedure.”
28 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“Even if less intrusive means existed of protecting some particular types of property, it would be unreasonable to expect police officers in the everyday course of business to make fine and subtle distinctions in deciding which containers or items may be searched and which must be sealed as a unit.”
20 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
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.