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Editor: Bob Battle
Profession: DUI Defense Lawyer

Category: Virginia DUI

By a vote of 7-2, the U.S. Supreme Court denied cert. in Virginia v.
Harris. The question was whether police need some corroboration of an
anonymous tip that someone is driving drunk in order to make a traffic
stop. The Virginia Supreme Court said the police needed some corroboration to make the stop Constitutional. The Attorney General (Solicitor General Steve McCullough) asked the U.S. Court to adopt a "drunk driving" exception to the Constitutiion, so as to be able to stop the car on the basis
of the anonymous tip alone.

The full Supreme Court said it will not review the 4 to 3 decision by Virginia's Supreme Court. As usual, the justices did not give a reason for denying the commonwealth's request to review the decision.
However, in dissenting to his fellow justices' decision not to review the VA Supreme Court decision, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts argued for yet another DUI exception to the Constitution:

"I am not sure that the Fourth Amendment requires such independent corroboration before the police can act, at least in the special context of anonymous tips reporting drunk driving," he wrote.

This is a rare victory for the Fourth Amendment, which has been repeatedly ignored in DUI cases by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The Harris v. Commonwealth case involves an arrest and conviction for DUI in Richmond, Virginia after the police received an anonymous tip regarding an intoxicated driver. The officer observed no unusual driving prior to pulling the driver over.

Richmond VA DUI Lawyer Bob Battle, in Part 2 of his book (which was published prior to the VA Supreme Court ruling in Harris) "How to Choose a DUI Lawyer in Virginia," which is subtitled "20 Ways Lawyers who are 'Asleep at the Wheel' of your VA DUI Trial can Lose Winnable Cases" wrote as his 4th of 20 Ways:

4. Anonymous tip of drunk driving from citizen. In this day and age where everyone has a mobile phone, more and more suspected drunk drivers are being pulled over based on a 911 call from a citizen. Virginia law requires that, prior to being able to pull a vehicle over, the officer must obtain sufficient corroborating evidence from a caller to verify who the caller is, how they obtained their knowledge and what this knowledge is that leads them to conclude that someone is driving while intoxicated. If the officer does not obtain sufficient corroboration, the stop is invalid and the charge must be dismissed.

If you have a pending Virginia DUI, click here to instantly get a free copy of "How to Choose a DUI Lawyer in VA."
Click the link to read the full VA Supreme Court decision in Harris v. Commonwealth.