Richman v. Sheahan’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 federal appellate ·

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 21 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The Eighth Amendment is about punishment, so a punitive purpose must be shown in an excessive-force case litigated under that amendment — hence the language about malice and sadism that we quoted. The issue under the Fourth Amendment "is ‘whether the officers’ actions [were] objectively reasonable in light of the facts and circumstances confronting them.’" Smith v. Ball State University, 295 F.3d 763 , 770 (7th Cir.2002), quoting Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 , 397, 109 S.Ct. 1865 , 104 L.Ed.2d 443 (1989); see also Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194 , 201-02, 121 S.Ct. 2151 , 150 L.Ed.2d 272 (2001). The officers' intent in using force is irrelevant in a Fourth Amendment case. Graham v. Connor, supra, 490 U.S. at 397 , 109 S.Ct. 1865 ; Phelps v. Coy, 286 F.3d 295 , 299-301 (6th Cir. 2002). Only its reasonableness matters— which means whether it was excessive in the circumstances, because if it was, it was unreasonable — and reasonableness is the focus of the briefs of both sides in this case.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Sanchez v. City of Chicago