The erosion of the Fourth Amendment is continuing at a rapid pace. I don’t know which will happen first.The disappearance of the Fourth Amendment or the melting of the North Pole. The U.S. Supreme Court dealt another body blow to the Fourth Amendment in Navarette v California . In Navarette , The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that an anonymous tip can be the basis for a traffic stop.

Under the court’s ruling , a person sitting at Whiskey Dick’s in Murfreesboro can call into to the police and report someone was leaving drunk . Better yet , a off-duty police officer makes the call. The court has opened the floodgates for traffic stops. Here is what Justice Scalia said in his dissent;

"After today’s opinion," said Scalia, "all of us on the road, and not just drug dealers, are at risk … "

Justice Scalia was referring to the unfettered discretion of police officers to stop cars. Tennessee has already gone to this standard a few years ago when the Tennessee Supreme Court decided  Hanning .The bottom line is you will see more of these anonymous call traffic stops . Soon folks might be alerting the police on Twitter if they think there is a drunk driver on the road. I think the better rule is that police officers must see something to corroborate the callers information.

My takeaway is that the Fourth Amendment now has more exceptions to the search and seizure requirement than it has real teeth to prevent unlawful seizures. .On the other hand when courts review the Second Amendment there are no exceptions.