Commonwealth v. Gentle’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

5 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 5 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “engaging or threatening to engage in conduct that violates the Fourth Amendment.”

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Alexis · 92 Mass. App. Ct. 764 - Commonwealth v. Polanco

2. “Although the Supreme Judicial Court's interpretation of art. 14 has often converged with the United States Supreme Court's interpretation of the Fourth Amendment, when the Supreme Judicial Court has diverged it has emphasized its obligation to undertake an independent review of the State Constitution and the court's freedom to interpret the State Constitution to provide a different balancing of the interests of privacy and the police ...”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Alexis

3. “How 'secure' do our homes remain if police, armed with no warrant, can pound on doors at will and, on hearing sounds indicative of things moving, forcibly enter and search for evidence of unlawful activity?”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
   e.g. Commonwealth v. Alexis