Opinion ID: 2318754
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Supreme Court Precedents

Text: In Alabama v. White , [13] the United States Supreme Court addressed the extent to which an informant's tip could provide the police with reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal activity. [14] In that case, the police received an anonymous tip that the defendant would be leaving a particular apartment at a particular time to deliver cocaine. The informant stated that the defendant would drive a brown Plymouth station wagon with a broken taillight and deliver the cocaine in a brown attaché case to a location near Dobey's Motel. [15] The police placed the defendant's reported location of departure under surveillance and observed the defendant get into a car matching the description provided by the informant. [16] The police then followed the defendant along the most direct route to Dobey's Motel, and eventually stopped her and searched her car just short of the destination. [17] They found marijuana in the car and cocaine in a brown attaché case. [18] In White, the Supreme Court concluded that the police sufficiently corroborated the informant's assertions by matching the description of the car and by observing behaviors that the informant predicted. [19] The Supreme Court noted that if police can corroborate predictive information regarding the defendant's movements and behavior, the informant's credibility is bolstered. [20] According to the Supreme Court, the prediction of future behavior demonstrates inside informationspecial familiarity with someone's affairs that the general public would have no way of knowing. [21] The Supreme Court concluded that because only a small number of people are generally privy to an individual's itinerary, it is reasonable for police to believe that an informant with access to such information is likely also to have access to reliable information about that individual's illegal activities. [22] Conversely, the United States Supreme Court has held that an anonymous tip providing no predictive information that the police may use to assess the reliability and knowledge of an informant is insufficient to constitute a reasonable articulable suspicion of criminal activity. [23] In Florida v. J.L ., [24] the Supreme Court held there was no reasonable articulable suspicion where police received an anonymous call reporting that a black male in a plaid shirt was carrying a gun at the train station. [25] In that case, the police responded to the train station and saw three black males, one of whom wore a plaid shirt. [26] Although police did not see the defendant engage in any suspicious or illegal activity, they proceeded to stop and search him for weapons. [27] The Supreme Court held that the anonymous call did not constitute a reasonable articulable suspicion because it did not contain predictive information [28] and did not provide any other basis for reliability in its assertion of illegality. [29]