I see from Jonathan Adler’s post on the Volokh Conspiracy that Wall Street Journal reporters Jess Bravin and Nathan Koppel, in their article yesterday titled “Nominees’s Criminal Rulings Tilt to Right of Souter,” fell for the White House’s wild misrepresentation of Judge Sotomayor’s 1999 ruling in United States v. Santa, which merely applied existing Supreme Court precedent on the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule. Their misrepresentation of Santa, and of its relationship to the Supreme Court’s January 2009 ruling in Herring v. United States, is their lead example of how Sotomayor might be to Justice Souter’s right on issues of criminal law. But as Jonathan points out, Souter in fact joined the 1995 precedent that Sotomayor applied in Santa.

Memo to reporters: Trust the White House at your peril.