Goldston v. United States

Once again we confront the question of whether an informant’s tip furnished the police with probable cause to make a war-rantless arrest. We would do well to begin this inquiry by noting that although there is an established analytical framework for principled decision-making in this area of the law, “[t]he unique circumstances under which each case arises ... makes the term ‘binding precedent’ a misnomer.” United States v. Mason, 450 A.2d 464, 466 (D.C.1982); see Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238 n. 11, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 2332 n. 11, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983) (“There are so many variables in the…