United States v. Medrano’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

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

1. “Significantly, too, a defendant convicted of the same offense, that of “being found,” whose illegal presence was discovered by the government before the defendant was incarcerated would also be eligible for a concurrent sentence under subsection (c). Almost always, a defendant who is found illegally present in the United States after having been deported has also entered illegally. Thus, the literal application of subsection (a) to the offense of “being found” and of subsection (c) to illegal reentry means that identical conduct may result in the imposition of radically disparate terms of imprisonment depending solely on the often arbitrary choice whether to charge the defendant with illegal reentry or illegally being found.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 277 F. Supp. 2d 952 - United States v. Contreras-Hernandez

2. “■In each of these cases, the defendant, already under á criminal justice sentence for one crime, actively chose to engage- in another. In [the case of a § 1326 offender], by contrast, the defendant ha[s] already committed all of the elements of the crime before he was convicted and incarcerated for the state offense. (In fact, his incarceration necessarily meant that he remained in the country illegally.) [The defendant’s] being “found” while in jail was not the result of any conduct committed by him while in jail.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 277 F. Supp. 2d 952 - United States v. Contreras-Hernandez