Lawson v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 federal appellate · 16 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 18 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““On arrest for a traffic violation there is no lawful predicate for a search of the driver or the vehicle absent special circumstances where the officer has probable cause to search the area in which the arrestee may reach for a weapon or to destroy evidence of the crime for which he is arrested. A search exceeding these limits is constitutionally unreasonable and the fruits thereof inadmissible.””

   6 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Hughes v. State · Ruhm v. State

2. ““[T]he legitimate objectives of warrant-less searches of the person incident to arrest seem to be (1) seizure of fruits, instrumentalities and other evidence of the crime for which.the arrest is made, in order to prevent its destruction or concealment; and (2) removal of any weapons that the arrestee might seek to use to resist arrest or effect his escape. * * * [T]he search must be directed to finding evidence which the arresting officer has probable cause to believe will be found on the person, and * * * the search be no more intrusive than necessary to recover such evidence. For some crimes — -and more particularly for most traffic crimes — no search of the person for evidence may be allowed at all because no evidence exists to be found.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Bird v. State