United States v. Melvin’s Empirical Analysis
596 F.2d 492 · 1979
Citation profile
43 federal appellate · 19 district · 25 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 104 later decisions — most recently July 2018 · most notably United States v. Heldt (1981), United States v. Blasco (1983)
43 federal appellate · 19 district · 25 state decisions — followed in 13 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 26 U.S.C. § 5861 (§ 201 of the Gun Control Act of 1968)
Relies on Miranda v. State of Arizona Vignera · Terry v. Ohio · Wong Sun v. United States · Carroll v. United States · Franks v. Delaware
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 104 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“affidavits for search warrants ... must be tested and interpreted by magistrates and courts in a common-sense and realistic fashion. They are normally drafted by nonlawyers in the midst and haste of a criminal investigation. Technical requirements of elaborate specificity once exacted under common law pleadings have no proper place in this area. A grudging or negative attitude by reviewing courts toward warrants will tend to discourage police officers from submitting their evidence to a judicial officer before acting.”
4 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he words 'reasonable cause' are perhaps closer to what is meant.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“the very nature of the (object)-a sawed-off shotgun ...-provided probable cause to believe the firearms were contraband.”
1 later decision 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.