Commonwealth v. Means’s Empirical Analysis
1992
Citation profile
2 federal appellate · 31 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 33 later decisions — most recently July 2023 · most notably Commonwealth v. Carlton (1997), United States v. Sargent (2003)
2 federal appellate · 31 state decisions
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 Ker v. State of California · Commonwealth v. Stanley · Commonwealth v. Mason · Commonwealth v. DeMichel · State v. Castonguay
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 33 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“1. the occupants remain silent after repeated knocking and announcing; 2. the police are virtually certain that the occupants of the premises already know their purpose; 3. the police have reason to believe that an announcement prior to entry would imperil their safety; and 4. the police have reason to believe that evidence is about to be destroyed.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage“(a) A law enforcement officer executing a search warrant shall, before entry, give, or make reasonable effort to give notice of his identity, authority and purpose to any occupant of the premises specified in the warrant, unless exigent circumstances require his immediate forcible entry. (b) Such officer shall await a response for a reasonable period of time after his announcement of identity, authority, and purpose, unless exigent circumstances require his immediate forcible entry. (c) If the officer is not admitted after such reasonable period, he may forcibly enter the premises and may use as much physical force to effect entry therein as is necessary to execute the search.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage“Drug busts are so inherently exigent as to product and dangerous as to the authorities that the police, once armed with a proper warrant, should be allowed to knock, announce and enter almost immediately. The reasonableness requirement should play in favor of the authorities because any delay enables drug pushers to dispose of evidence by flushing or similar means. The term "exigency" takes on a whole new meaning in reference to drug cases. Finally, the "Fourth Amendment cannot be interpreted to imperil law enforcement officers." Stanley, [ supra ].”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.