Commonwealth v. Dobbins’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

20 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 20 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Unless the sheriffs common law power to make warrantless arrests for breaches of the peace committed in his presence has been abrogated, it is clear that a sheriff (and his deputies) may make arrests for motor vehicle violations which amount to breaches of the peace committed in their presence. Thus, we search the statute!, ie., the Vehicle Code,] for authority abrogating the common law power of the sheriff, rather than statutory authority for the sheriff to enforce the law — authority he has always possessed under common law. In other words, although the Superior Court searched in vain for a provision which grants the sheriff an enforcement power under the motor vehicle laws, it is instead necessary to search for a statutory provision which removes the enforcement power of the sheriff (which pre-existed the statute). The latter search is equally vain; there is, in the motor vehicle code, no unequivocal abrogation of the sheriffs common law power to arrest. It is evident, moreover, that the power to arrest subsumes the power to stop, detain, and investigate a motorist who breaches the peace while operating a motor vehicle in the presence of the sheriff. In short, it is not necessary to find a motor vehicle code provision granting to sheriffs the power to enforce the code— sheriffs have had the power and duty to enforce the laws since before the Magna Carta; rather, it would be necessary to find an unequivocal provision in the code abrogating the sheriffs power in order to con”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Marconi

2. “Nothing in this Opinion ... should be construed to limit sheriffs’ well-documented and salutary role in support of those law enforcement agencies so authorized [to conduct law enforcement investigations], nor should our ruling be read to suggest that the General Assembly lacks authority to grant broader investigatory power to sheriffs in this or other contexts. Those questions simply are not before us.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Marconi