United States v. Sells’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

15 federal appellate · 7 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 24 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “In United States v. Matlock, 415 U.S. 164 , 94 S.Ct. 988 , 39 L.Ed.2d 242 (1974), the Court said that when the government seeks to justify a warrantless search by showing voluntary consent, it may do so by showing that `permission to search was obtained from a third party who possessed common authority over or other sufficient relationship to the premises or effect sought to be inspected.' Id. at 993. Common authority was defined as `mutual use of the property by persons generally having joint access or control for most purposes, so that it is reasonable' for the searching officers to believe that the person giving the consent had the authority to do so. Id. at n. 7. Consent is a factual question and, so too, is the question of the appearance of authority to give it.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Schraff v. State

2. “it was testimony regarding a fact known to [them] about which [they] could be cross-examined.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. State v. Cotton