Commonwealth v. Elysee’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

9 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 9 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “To support an order to a passenger to alight from a vehicle stopped for a traffic violation . . . the officer need not point to specific facts that the occupants are 'armed and dangerous.' Rather, the officer need point only to some fact or facts in the totality of the circumstances that would create in a police officer a heightened awareness of danger that would warrant an objectively reasonable officer in securing the scene in a more effective manner by ordering the passenger to alight from the car.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 86 Mass. App. Ct. 404 - Commonwealth v. Douglas

2. “an exit order is justified where the police have 'a reasonable belief that the officer's safety, or the safety of others, is in danger.' . . . 'Reasonable belief' is shorthand for a reasonable, articulable suspicion.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 86 Mass. App. Ct. 404 - Commonwealth v. Douglas

3. “nonresponsive and deceptive interactions”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 93 Mass. App. Ct. 260 - Commonwealth v. Summers