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rulemylife -> RE: The arrest of Henry Louis Gates: How far have we really come? (7/26/2009 12:34:54 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: willbeurdaddy
quote:
ORIGINAL: OrionTheWolf
When challenged at a Supreme Court level it is pretty clear cut. Now when police want to over step their authority, and local judges uphold them, that is not clear cut. This is why if you really want to press your rights, you usually need to go further up the ladder where there is less political pandering.
It is clear cut at the SCOTUS level with regard to warrants. You've posted nothing that Ive seen where SCOTUS ruled on anything remotely like a crime in progress.
The following case was based on a 911 call, just as the Gates controversy and People v. Shehady that you cited earlier.
Florida v. J. L., U.S. Supreme Court Case Summary & Oral Argument
Facts of the Case:
On October 13, 1995 Miami-Dade police received an anonymous tip that a black male wearing a plaid shirt was standing near a bus stop carrying a gun. The two officers who responded found three black males, one of which, J.L., a 15-year-old, was wearing a plaid shirt. After frisking him, the officers did find a firearm.
J.L. was charged with carrying a concealed weapon without a license. At trial, he moved to suppress the gun as evidence, arguing that the frisking performed by the officers was illegal under the Fourth Amendment. The trial court granted the motion, but was reversed by the immediate appellate court. The Florida Supreme Court overruled the appellate court and suppressed the evidence.
Question:
Did searching J.L. solely on the basis of the anonymous tip received by the Miami-Dade police violate his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure?
Conclusion:
Yes. In a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Court concluded that J.L. the anonymous tip did not meet the minimum requirements to perform a warrantless search.
Justice Ginsburg, drawing from the Court's logic in Terry v. Ohio and Adams v. Williams, indicated that an anonymous tip must posses a moderate level of reliability, including "predictive information" that offers police a "means to test the informant's knowledge or credibility."
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