United States v. Flickinger’s Empirical Analysis
573 F.2d 1349 · 1978
Citation profile
99 federal appellate · 6 district · 18 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 137 later decisions — most recently June 2022 · most notably United States v. McConney (1984), United States v. Castillo (1988)
99 federal appellate · 6 district · 18 state decisions — followed in 10 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
Applies 18 U.S.C. § 2 · 21 U.S.C. § 841 (§ 401 of the Controlled Substances Act) · 21 U.S.C. § 952
Relies on United States v. United States Gypsum Co. · Carroll v. United States · Stovall v. Denno · Coolidge v. New Hampshire · Manson v. Brathwaite
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 137 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[W]e are not unsympathetic with the government’s premise that “any time agents seek to effect an arrest or search of a residence, with or without a warrant, the possibility that persons inside might have access to weapons is very real and sometimes critical.” Followed to its logical conclusion, however, the government’s contention would obviate the necessity for a warrant in any arrest in a residence, because every such arrest would involve the potential use of weapons.”
9 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“on the entire evidence (it) is left with the definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been committed.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the dissent“It would not be unreasonable for the DEA officers to fear that a warning telephone call would come to the Flickinger home from [arrested codefendants] or from someone they would contact. In addition, the agents could reasonably believe that some or all of the large quantity of marijuana was to be delivered to additional unknown confederates. Not knowing when the marijuana was due at its destination, the agents could reasonably conclude that a concerned prospective recipient might alert Flickinger that the delivery was overdue and thus had possibly been intercepted. Moreover, such an alerting telephone call would, of course, activate the standard exigencies discussed above: escape, destruction of evidence, and danger of violence.”
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.