Finger v. State’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

41 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 41 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Detention turns on an evaluation, under all the circumstances, of whether a reasonable person would feel free to disregard the police and go about his or her business.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. R.H. v. State · Aaron A. Negash v. State of Indiana

2. “does not deal with situations in which a person voluntarily interacts with a police officer”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. R.H. v. State · Shirley v. State

3. “(1) Finger’s car was reported as ... “suspicious”; (2) although Finger claimed the car was out of fuel, and someone had gone for gasoline, a gas station was around .the corner and the fuel gauge indicated that there was one eighth of a tank of fuel remaining in the car; (3) Finger told other inconsistent stories during his conversation with [the police officer]; (4) there was a folded pocketknife in the car; and (5) Finger and his passenger were “acting nervous.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. State v. Scott