5 canonical passages across 5 cases, quoted by 37 opinions in total. These passages cluster together because the same opinions keep quoting them side by side — they state parts of one doctrine. The anchor passage is from Clayton Thomas v. Ben Varner the District Attorney of the County of Philadelphia the Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania.
| # | Case | Flag | Canonical passage | Citers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Clayton Thomas v. Ben Varner the District Attorney of the County of Philadelphia the Attorney General of the State of Pennsylvania Anchor | green | “a fair assessment of attorney performance requires that every effort be made to eliminate the distorting effects of hindsight, to reconstruct the circumstances of counsel's challenged conduct, and to evaluate the conduct from counsel's perspective at the time.” | 9 |
| 2 | Lewis v. Horn | green | “must indulge a strong presumption that counsel's conduct falls within the wide range of reasonable professional assistance; that is, the defendant must overcome the presumption that, under the circumstances, the challenged action 'might be considered sound trial strategy.” | 8 |
| 3 | Hackett v. Price | green | “the state court's decision must be shown to be not only erroneous, but objectively unreasonable” | 7 |
| 4 | Commonwealth v. Pierce | green | “a state court decision that applied the pennsylvania ineffective assistance of counsel test did not apply a rule of law that contradicted strickland and thus was not 'contrary to' established supreme court precedent” | 7 |
| 5 | Berryman v. Morton | green | “there is a reasonable probability that, but for counsel's unprofessional errors, the result of the proceeding would have been different.” | 6 |
A red or yellow flag on a member means the underlying case has negative treatment — for those, check the case page before relying on the passage.