Verified case law
Appellate case law that governs how US policing is conducted and reviewed, grouped by what it governs. Police Census does not summarise or characterise what a case held — each page links to the full record on CourtListener.
Why “verified” matters. A citation such as 488 U.S. 1001 resolves to fourteen different CourtListener clusters, one of them itself captioned “Graham v. Connor” with a citation count of zero. Every case published here has been individually confirmed against the correct cluster by a human, not auto-resolved from the citation alone.
Duty of care
| Case | Citation | Court | Year | Cited by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DeShaney v. Winnebago County | 489 U.S. 189 | scotus | 1989 | 4,636 |
| Town of Castle Rock v. Gonzales | 545 U.S. 748 | scotus | 2005 | 1,189 |
Interrogation
| Case | Citation | Court | Year | Cited by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Miranda v. Arizona | 384 U.S. 436 | scotus | 1966 | 58,506 |
| Garrity v. New Jersey | 385 U.S. 493 | scotus | 1967 | 1,544 |
| Vega v. Tekoh | 597 U.S. 134 | scotus | 2022 | 164 |
Liability
| Case | Citation | Court | Year | Cited by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monell v. Department of Social Services | 436 U.S. 658 | scotus | 1978 | 42,795 |
| Brady v. Maryland | 373 U.S. 83 | scotus | 1963 | 34,174 |
| Harlow v. Fitzgerald | 457 U.S. 800 | scotus | 1982 | 23,125 |
| Bivens v. Six Unknown Named Agents | 403 U.S. 388 | scotus | 1971 | 18,478 |
| Pearson v. Callahan | 555 U.S. 223 | scotus | 2009 | 14,301 |
| City of Canton v. Harris | 489 U.S. 378 | scotus | 1989 | 10,308 |
| Giglio v. United States | 405 U.S. 150 | scotus | 1972 | 7,053 |
| City of Los Angeles v. Lyons | 461 U.S. 95 | scotus | 1983 | 5,914 |
| Egbert v. Boule | 596 U.S. 482 | scotus | 2022 | 1,045 |
Stops & searches
| Case | Citation | Court | Year | Cited by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terry v. Ohio | 392 U.S. 1 | scotus | 1968 | 38,133 |
| Mapp v. Ohio | 367 U.S. 643 | scotus | 1961 | 9,113 |
| Whren v. United States | 517 U.S. 806 | scotus | 1996 | 7,168 |
| Illinois v. Wardlow | 528 U.S. 119 | scotus | 2000 | 4,196 |
| Rodriguez v. United States | 575 U.S. 348 | scotus | 2015 | 2,140 |
| Atwater v. City of Lago Vista | 532 U.S. 318 | scotus | 2001 | 1,407 |
| Riley v. California | 134 S. Ct. 2473 | scotus | 2014 | 1,312 |
| Carpenter v. United States | 585 U.S. 296 | scotus | 2018 | 1,226 |
| Heien v. North Carolina | 135 S. Ct. 530 | scotus | 2014 | 622 |
| Utah v. Strieff | 579 U.S. 232 | scotus | 2016 | ≥ 425 |
Use of force
| Case | Citation | Court | Year | Cited by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Graham v. Connor | 490 U.S. 386 | scotus | 1989 | 16,911 |
| Scott v. Harris | 550 U.S. 372 | scotus | 2007 | 13,651 |
| Tennessee v. Garner | 471 U.S. 1 | scotus | 1985 | 4,331 |
| Kingsley v. Hendrickson | 576 U.S. 389 | scotus | 2015 | 4,256 |
| County of Los Angeles v. Mendez | 581 U.S. 420 | scotus | 2017 | 406 |
| Barnes v. Felix | 605 U.S. 73 | scotus | 2025 | ≥ 160 |
| Lombardo v. St. Louis | 594 U.S. 464 | scotus | 2021 | 142 |