Illinois v. Wardlow’s Empirical Analysis
2000
Citation profile
1,154 federal appellate · 318 district · 2,398 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 5,865 later decisions (24 by the Supreme Court) — most recently April 2026 · most notably United States v. Arvizu (2002), Georgia v. Randolph (2006)
1,154 federal appellate · 318 district · 2,398 state decisions — followed in 45 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 Terry v. Ohio · Florida v. Royer · United States v. Cortez · Adams v. Williams · United States v. Sokolow
Cited together with Terry v. Ohio · United States v. Arvizu · United States v. Sokolow · United States v. Cortez · Ornelas v. United States
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 5,865 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[a]n individual's presence in an area of expected criminal activity, standing alone, is not enough to support a reasonable, particularized suspicion that the person is committing a crime.”
227 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“reasonable, articulable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot.”
107 later decisions quote this exact passage“an officer may, consistent with the Fourth Amendment, conduct a brief, investigatory stop when the officer has a reasonable, articulable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot.”
103 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.