Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 11, 1990 TAG: 9006110269
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A/8 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
By a 6-3 vote, the justices said anonymous tips can justify such police tactics if the information is in some way corroborated before the person is stopped and questioned.
The decision reinstated Vanessa White's 1987 conviction and two-year probationary sentence for possession of marijuana and cocaine. A state court had thrown out the conviction, ruling that Montgomery, Ala., police seized the drugs after unlawfully stopping her car.
Police had received a tip from an unknown caller about White. The caller said she would be leaving her house at a certain time to drive to a motel and that she would be carrying illegal drugs.
Officers went to her home, watched her leave and drive away. They followed, and stopped her car close to the motel. She consented to the search in which the drugs were discovered.
"Although it is a close case, we conclude that under the totality of the circumstances the anonymous tip, as corroborated, exhibited sufficient indicia of reliability to justify the investigatory stop of [White's] car," Justice Byron White wrote for the court.
The court's three dissenters - Justices John Paul Stevens, William Brennan and Thurgood Marshall - blasted the decision.
"Millions of people leave their apartments at about the same time every day . . . heading for a destination known to their neighbors," Stevens wrote for the three.
"Under the court's holding, every citizen is subject to being seized and questioned by any officer who is prepared to testify that the warrantless stop was based on an anonymous tip predicting whatever conduct the officer just observed," Stevens said.
In another important decision, the court ruled that the federal government may order state National Guard troops to take part in peacetime training abroad without a governor's consent.
The court ruled on a 1986 federal law known as the Montgomery Amendment that limits the power of governors to withhold consent to federal deployment of National Guard units.
The amendment was enacted after several governors said they opposed the Reagan administration's Central American policy and did not want National Guard troops from their states assigned to training missions in that region.
The amendment prohibits any governor from withholding consent to a National Guard's unit's active duty outside the country because of an objection to the location, purpose or schedule of the duty.
In other action today, the court:
Agreed to review a dispute over the power of federal prosecutors to force distributors of adult books and films to turn over such material and business records to the government.
The court said it will review a ruling that a New York City company must turn over business records - but not 193 videotapes - to a prosecutor in Virginia.
The case stems from an investigation by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Va., into shipments of allegedly obscene material into the state.
Refused to let a private Jewish group display a menorah in a public park near the Burlington, Vt., City Hall.
The justices, without comment, let stand a ruling that barred city officials last December from granting permission for the menorah's display.
Agreed to hear a Bush administration appeal aimed at heading off all lawsuits against government employees accused of causing personal injury.
The court said it will consider killing a Texas family's medical malpractice suit against an Army doctor.
by CNB