Commonwealth v. Williams’s Empirical Analysis
1978
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 100 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 106 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2022 · most notably Payton v. New York (1980), Welsh v. Wisconsin (1984)
2 federal appellate · 100 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 Wong Sun v. United States · Warden, Maryland Penitentiary v. Hayden · Ker v. State of California · United States v. Watson · United States v. Martinez-Fuerte
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 106 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“". . . the late hour may underscore the delay (and perhaps impracticability of) obtaining a warrant, and hence serve to justify proceeding without one." Williams, supra 483 Pa. at 299 , 396 A.2d at 1180 .”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“Terms like “exigent circumstances” or “urgent need” are useful in underscoring the heavy burden on the police to show that there was a need that could not brook the delay incident to obtaining a warrant, and that it is only in the light of those circumstances and that need that the war-rantless search meets the ultimate test of avoiding condemnation under the Fourth Amendment as “unreasonable”. While the numerous and varied street fact situations do not permit a comprehensive catalog of the cases covered by these terms, it may be useful to refer to a number of considerations that are material, and have particular pertinence in the case at bar.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage“police should have obtained an arrest warrant”
1 later decision quote this exact passagee.g. State v. Jordan
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.