United States v. Thornton’s Empirical Analysis
746 F.2d 39 · 1984
Citation profile
51 federal appellate · 4 district · 12 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 86 later decisions (2 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 2021 · most notably California v. Greenwood (1988), United States v. Espinosa (1987)
51 federal appellate · 4 district · 12 state decisions
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 21 U.S.C. § 841 (§ 401 of the Controlled Substances Act)
Relies on United States v. Leon · Harris v. McRae · United States v. S.A. Empresa de Viacao Aerea Rio Grandense · United States v. Bailey · Midgett v. Slayton
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 86 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“[A] defendant is entitled to an instruction on a lesser included offense if there is any evidence fairly tending to bear upon the lesser included offense, 'however weak' that evidence may be.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“a jury could rationally find the defendant guilty of the lesser offense, yet acquit him of the greater.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“[T]he overwhelming weight of authority rejects the proposition that a reasonable expectation of privacy exists with respect to trash discarded outside the home and the curtilege [sic] thereof.”
3 later decisions 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.