Hill v. California

In Hill v. California (1971) 401 U.S. 797, the United States Supreme Court upheld a search incident to an arrest, even though the arrest was made of the wrong person, who had identified himself as someone other than the person whom the police were looking for. The court explained, "The upshot was that the officers in good faith believed Miller was Hill and arrested him. They were quite wrong as it turned out, and subjective good-faith belief would not in itself justify either the arrest or the subsequent search. But sufficient probability, not certainty, is the touchstone of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment and on the record before us the officers' mistake was understandable and the arrest a reasonable response to the situation facing them at the time." (Id. at pp. 803-804.)