Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/boundvolumes/558bv.pdf
Page Number: 825.0

978 

OCTOBER TERM, 2009 

October 20, 2009 

558 U. S. 

No.  09–6632.  Peterson  v.  United  States.  C.  A.  3d  Cir. 

Certiorari  denied. 

No.  09–6633.  Russ  v.  United  States.  C.  A.  11th  Cir.  Cer­

tiorari  denied. 

No.  09–6634.  Poindexter  v.  United  States.  C.  A.  4th  Cir. 

Certiorari  denied.  Reported  below:  342  Fed.  Appx.  871. 

No.  08–1385.  Virginia  v.  Harris.  Sup.  Ct.  Va.  Certiorari 

denied.  Reported  below:  276  Va.  689,  668  S.  E.  2d  141. 

Chief  Justice  Roberts,  with  whom  Justice  Scalia  joins, 

dissenting. 

Every  year,  close  to  13,000  people  die  in  alcohol-related  car 
crashes—roughly  one  death  every  40  minutes.  See  Dept.  of 
Transp.,  Nat.  Hwy.  Trafﬁc  Safety  Admin.,  Trafﬁc  Safety  Facts, 
2007  Trafﬁc  Safety  Annual  Assessment—Alcohol-Impaired  Driv­
ing  Fatalities  1  (No.  811016,  Aug.  2008).  Ordinary  citizens  are 
well  aware  of  the  dangers  posed  by  drunk  driving,  and  they  fre­
quently  report  such  conduct  to  the  police.  A  number  of  States 
have  adopted  programs  speciﬁcally  designed  to  encourage  such 
tips—programs such as the “Drunkbuster Hotline” in New Mexico 
and  the  REDDI  program  (Report  Every  Drunk  Driver  Immedi­
ately) in force in several States.  See Dept. of Transp., Nat. Hwy. 
Trafﬁc  Safety  Admin.,  Programs  Across  the  United  States  That 
Aid  Motorists  in  the  Reporting  of  Impaired  Drivers  to  Law  En­
forcement  (2007). 

By  a  4-to-3  vote,  the  Virginia  Supreme  Court  below  adopted  a 
rule  that  will  undermine  such efforts  to  get  drunk  drivers  off  the 
road.  The decision below commands that police ofﬁcers following 
a driver reported to be drunk do nothing until they see the driver 
actually  do  something  unsafe  on  the  road—by  which  time  it  may 
be  too  late. 

Here,  a  Richmond  police  ofﬁcer  pulled  Joseph  Harris  over  after 
receiving  an  anonymous  tip  that  Harris  was  driving  while  intoxi­
cated.  The  tip  described  Harris,  his  car,  and  the  direction  he 
was  traveling  in  considerable  detail.  The  ofﬁcer  did  not  person­
ally  witness  Harris  violate  any  trafﬁc  laws.  When  Harris  was 
pulled over, however, he reeked of alcohol, his speech was slurred, 
he  almost fell  over  in attempting  to exit  his  car, and  he  failed the 
sobriety  tests  the  ofﬁcer  administered  on  the  scene.  Harris  was 
convicted  of  driving  while  intoxicated,  but  the  Virginia  Supreme