State v. Hampton’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

2 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 2 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[Appellant’s] premise runs counter to the reasons for which some courts have imposed special requirements for strip searches. A person is “strip searched” if he or she is made to “remove or arrange some or all of his or her clothing so as to permit an inspection of the genitals, buttocks, anus, or undergarments of the person or breasts of a female person.” “The intrusion into one’s personal dignity occasioned by such searches requires that some justifiable basis exists.” Such basis is often lacking when officers search a person at the national border, incident to lawful arrest, or incident to booking, because the officers are not required to have even an articulable suspicion (much less probable cause to believe) that the person is possessing contraband or evidence of crime in or under his or her clothing. Such a basis is automatically present when officers have obtained an otherwise lawful warrant to search a defendant’s person for drugs, for a neutral magistrate will already have determined that the defendant is probably possessing drugs in or under his or her clothing. Accordingly, special safeguards (i.e., safeguards beyond the usual probable cause and warrant requirements) are not needed when officers conduct a strip search pursuant to a warrant based on probable cause to search a defendant’s person for drugs.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2013 Pa. Super. 102 - Commonwealth v. Martinez

2. “The scope of a search warrant is defined by the object of the search and place in which there is probable cause to believe the object will be found. The warrant in the case sub judice, was executed for the express purpose of procuring controlled substances likely to be found on the premises or on the persons described in the warrant, one of which was the defendant. Such substances could be readily concealed on the person so that they would not be found without a strip search. [ ] The scope of the search, while more intrusive than a search of the defendant’s outer clothing, was justified by the state’s interest in obtaining criminal evidence.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 2013 Pa. Super. 102 - Commonwealth v. Martinez