Hunsberger v. Wood’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

11 federal appellate · 2 district · 9 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 37 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “'requires a court to look at the function performed by a police officer' when the officer engages in a warrantless search or seizure.”

   3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Taylor v. City of Saginaw · Castagna v. Edwards

2. “First, the circumstances indicated the strong possibility of an unauthorized intruder in the home. Klik, the Hunsbergers’ neighbor, had said that she thought the Hunsbergers were out of town. There appeared to be someone inside the home who wished to avoid contact with the police; when the officers first arrived, someone in the house turned the lights off, and then later the open door in the garage suggested that someone had fled the home while the officers were at the front door. Three cars not belonging to the Hunsbergers were parked in front of the house. No one came to the front door when the officers rang the doorbell, and no one answered when Wood and Blessard knocked on the basement door repeatedly. Furthermore, a vacant home in the neighborhood had recently burned down as the apparent result of unauthorized use. All of these facts gave rise to an objectively reasonable belief that vandalism might be taking place in the home. It is true that police officers need more than a slight suspicion that property is being harmed to justify a warrantless entry. For example, an open door alone does not create a reasonable belief that a burglary is taking place. But here there were numerous indications to justify the belief that someone was in the Hunsberger home who was not supposed to be there. Second, there was evidence that a minor girl was in the home, given that her car was parked in front of the house. The girl’s stepfather said that she was not supposed to be at the home a”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 785 F. Supp. 2d 1004 - United States v. Christy

3. “[a]n action is ‘reasonable’ under the Fourth Amendment, regardless of the individual officer’s state of mind, 'as long as the circumstances, viewed objectively, support the action.'”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. United States v. Wilhelm