Navarette, 572 US ___, 134 SC 896, ___ LE3 ___ (14) #12–9490:
A 911 caller reported that a truck had run her off the road. She was able to describe the truck, what direction it was going and the license plate. A dispatcher reported this to California Highway Patrol officers. A few minutes CHP spotted the truck, and pulled it over. As the two officers approached the truck, they smelled marijuana. A search of the truck bed revealed 30 pounds of weed. The officers arrested the driver, petitioner Lorenzo Prado Navarette, and the passenger, petitioner José Prado Navarette.
The petitioners challenged the stop, arguing there was no reasonable suspicion of criminal activity. The Supreme Court, with a surprising dissenter, holds that the stop was valid.
The issue is whether an anonymous tip can provide the reasonable suspicion required to make a stop. In the past the Court has held that given sufficient corroboration, the “totality of the circumstances” can provide the justification.
The majority opinion, by Thomas, J., alludes to two contrasting Court decisions: Alabama v. White, 496 U. S. 325 (1990) and Florida v. J. L., 529 U. S. 266 (2000).
In White, the details provided by an anonymous tipster supplied the basis for a reasonable suspicion that crime might be afoot. The tipster’s details, which included an allegation of cocaine distribution, indicated that tipster had a “familiarity” with the suspect’s affairs. In J. L., the “bare-bones” details did not provide enough indication of the same familiarity.
In the present case, then, did the details provided by the tipster rise to such a level that the officers could reasonably conclude the reckless driving report might indicate ongoing criminal activity such as drunk driving?
Yes, holds the Court, because the details provided were that of an eye witness to the possible criminal activity, whereas in J. L. there was nothing to indicate the tipster had seen anything illegal.
The Court also reasoned that the timeline of the report indicated it came in just after the tipster said she was run off the road. “That sort of contemporaneous report has long been treated as especially reliable,” writes Justice Thomas. He concludes:
Although the indicia present here are different from those we found sufficient in White, there is more than one way to demonstrate “a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity.” Cortez, 449 U. S., at 417–418. Under the totality of the circumstances, we find the indicia of reliability in this case sufficient to provide the officer with reasonable suspicion that the driver of the reported vehicle had run another vehicle off the road. That made it reasonable under the circumstances for the officer to execute a traffic stop. We accordingly affirm.
Now comes the somewhat surprising dissent. It is by Justice Scalia, joined by Ginsburg, Sotomayor and Kagan. You don’t see that everyday.
And he is having none of the majority opinion:
I fail to see how reasonable suspicion of a discrete instance of irregular or hazardous driving generates a reasonable suspicion of ongoing intoxicated driving. What proportion of the hundreds of thousands—perhaps millions—of careless, reckless, or intentional traffic violations committed each day is attributable to drunken drivers? I say 0.1 percent. I have no basis for that except my own guesswork. But unless the Court has some basis in reality to believe that the proportion is many orders of magnitude above that—say 1 in 10 or at least 1 in 20—it has no grounds for its unsupported assertion that the tipster’s report in this case gave rise to a reasonable suspicion of drunken driving.
And his ringing conclusion:
Drunken driving is a serious matter, but so is the loss of our freedom to come and go as we please without police interference. To prevent and detect murder we do not allow searches without probable cause or targeted Terry stops without reasonable suspicion. We should not do so for drunken driving either. After today’s opinion all of us on the road, and not just drug dealers, are at risk of having our freedom of movement curtailed on suspicion of drunkenness, based upon a phone tip, true or false, of a single instance of careless driving. I respectfully dissent.