United States v. Thomas’s Empirical Analysis
844 F.2d 678 · 1988
Citation profile
42
cited by 42 later decisions
April 1993
most recently cited
37 federal appellate ·
Relationships
Relies on Terry v. Ohio · Florida v. Royer · United States v. Cortez · Adams v. Williams · Vandygriff v. Phillips
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 42 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“Our evaluation of the proper balance that has to be struck in this type of case leads us to conclude that there must be a narrowly drawn authority to permit a reasonable search for weapons for the protection of the police officer, where he has reason to believe that he is dealing with an armed and dangerous individual, regardless of whether he has probable cause to arrest the individual for a crime. The officer need not be absolutely certain that the individual is armed; the issue is whether a reasonably prudent man in the circumstances would be warranted in the belief that his safety or that of others was in danger. [Citations omitted.] And in determining whether the officer acted reasonably in such circumstances, due weight must be given, not to his inchoate and unpartieularized suspicion or “hunch,” but to the specific reasonable inferences which he is entitled to draw from the facts in light of his experience.”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'some objective manifestation that the person stopped is, or is about to be, engaged in criminal activity.'”
2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“'[T]he totality of the circumstances--the whole picture--must be taken into account.'”
2 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.