Smith v. Tolley’s Empirical Analysis
1997
Citation profile
3 federal appellate · 2 district · 7 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently June 2017
3 federal appellate · 2 district · 7 state decisions
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. § 241 (Church Arson Prevention Act of 1996) · 28 U.S.C. § 1367 · 28 U.S.C. § 1915 · 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (Civil Rights Act of 1871 / Section 1983 (Ku Klux Klan Act)) · 42 U.S.C. § 1985
Relies on Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc. · Celotex Corporation v. Catrett H · Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. v. Zenith Radio Corporation · Harlow v. Fitzgerald · Illinois v. Gates
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 19 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“). At the time of the events in question, the Obstruction Statute provided: 21 If any person without just cause knowingly obstructs ... any law-enforcement officer in the performance of his duties as such or fails or refuses without just cause to cease such obstruction when requested to do so by such ... law-enforcement officer, he shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor. 22 Va.Code § 18.2-460(A). 2 We note at the outset that the Statute contains two distinct prohibitions: under its terms, a person may neither (1)”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissente.g. Wilson v. Kittoe““To constitute obstruction of an officer in the performance of his duty, it is not necessary that there be an actual or technical assault upon the officer, but there must be acts clearly indicating an intention on the part of the accused to prevent the officer from performing his duty, as to ‘obstruct’ ordinarily implies opposition or resistance by direct action and forcible or threatened means. It means to obstruct the officer himself not merely to oppose or impede the process with which the officer is armed.””
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent“In the present action, ... the Court finds that a reasonably competent police officer could have concluded that Smith knowingly tried to prevent a law enforcement officer from serving an objectively valid arrest warrant by his obstreperous behavior, his obstinate refusal to answer [the officer's] questions, his videotaping of the events, and his shutting the door in [the officer's] face.”
1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the dissent
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.