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Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 332 U.S. 581 - United States v. Di Re · 1948Most cited · 3,523 citing opinions
a search is not to be made legal by what it turns up. In law it is good or bad when it starts and does not change character from its success.
How the Supreme Court has restated “search”
Each Supreme Court definition of “search,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “search”
Court decisions citing the 3 opinions that defined “search” — 5,538 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 3 definitions, chronological · 1927–1949
- ORIGINAL
Such use of a searchlight is comparable to the use of a marine glass or a field glass. It is not prohibited by the Constitution.
Search is a functional, not merely a physical, process. Search is not completed until effective appropriation, as part of an uninterrupted transaction, is made of illicitly obtained objects for subsequent proof of an offense.