Pennsylvania v. Labron’s Empirical Analysis
1996
Citation profile
167 federal appellate · 55 district · 582 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 1,058 later decisions (6 by the Supreme Court) — most recently September 2025 · most notably Florida v. Tyvessel Tyvorus White (1999), Maryland v. Dyson (1999)
167 federal appellate · 55 district · 582 state decisions — followed in 38 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 Carroll v. United States · Coolidge v. New Hampshire · Delaware v. Van Arsdall · Chambers v. Maroney · New York v. Belton
Cited together with California v. Carney · Maryland v. Dyson · United States v. Ross · Carroll v. United States · Illinois v. Gates
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 1,058 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“If a car is readily mobile and probable cause exists to believe it contains contraband, the Fourth Amendment thus permits police to search the vehicle without more.”
56 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“In this case, the Court of Special Appeals found that there was “abundant probable cause” that the car contained contraband. This finding alone satisfies the automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement * * ⅞.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“"We disagree. The language we have quoted is not a `plain statement' sufficient to tell us `the federal cases [were] being used only for the purpose of guidance, and d[id] not themselves compel the result that the court ha[d] reached.' Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S. 1032, 1041 [ 103 S.Ct. 3469, 3476 , 77 L.Ed.2d 1201 ] (1983). The Pennsylvania Supreme Court did discuss several of its own decisions; as it noted, however, some of those cases relied on an analysis of our cases on the automobile exception, see, e.g., [ Commonwealth v. Labron, 543 Pa. 86, 94-96 , 669 A.2d 917, 921 (1995)] (observing Commonwealth v. Holzer, 480 Pa. 93, 103 , 389 A.2d 101, 106 (1978), cited Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443 , 91 S.Ct. 2022 , 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971)); [543] Pa., at [100-02], 669 A.2d, at 924 (stating Commonwealth v. White, [ 543 Pa. 45 , 669 A.2d 896 (1995)], rested in part upon the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's analysis of Chambers v. Maroney, 399 U.S. 42 , 90 S.Ct. 1975 , 26 L.Ed.2d 419 (1970)). The law of the Commonwealth thus appears to us `interwoven with the federal law, and ... the adequacy and independence of any possible state law ground is not clear from the face of the opinion.' Michigan v. Long, 463 U.S., at 1040-1041 [ 103 S.Ct., at 3476 ]. Our jurisdiction in [this] case is secure. Ibid. The opinion in [the companion] case, meanwhile, rests on an explicit conclusion that the officers' conduct violated the Fourth Amendment; we have jurisdiction to review this judgment as ”
2 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.