United States v. Baker’s Empirical Analysis
78 F.3d 135 · 1996
Citation profile
17 federal appellate · 2 district · 16 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 49 later decisions — most recently February 2023 · most notably United States v. Holmes (2004), Ransome v. State (2003)
17 federal appellate · 2 district · 16 state decisions — followed in 11 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 18 U.S.C. § 3731 · 18 U.S.C. § 922 (Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act)
Relies on Terry v. Ohio · Adams v. Williams · Sibron v. State of New York Peters · Michigan v. Long · Pennsylvania v. Mimms
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 49 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Based on the inordinate risk of danger to law enforcement officers during traffic stops, observing a bulge that could be made by a weapon in a suspect's clothing reasonably warrants a belief that the suspect is potentially dangerous, even if the suspect was stopped only for a minor violation.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“An officer's belief must be based not on subjective hunches but on information sufficient to cause a reasonably prudent person under the circumstances to believe that either his safety or that of others is in danger”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority“triangular shaped bulge underneath the front of [the suspect's] shirt, near the waistband of his pants”
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.