I'm doing some weekend lawyerin' here but from what Cary posted, it looks like not announcing a checkpoint would only be in violation of a policy guideline for a federal safety board, not any kind of law.
Also, I want to believe its not a violation of your constitutional rights as long as they do something like stop every 5th car, or every single car, or whatever. They can't pull you out of the lineup for no reason, you have to be randomly selected by some process that was applied equally to everyone.
One of the case law links was 404, and for the Delaware v Prouse, from what I gather that only affects Delaware. I found a link to sobriety checkpoint laws and they seem to be pretty legal in this state (and are in DE too)
http://www.iihs.org/laws/checkpoints.html
Here's all the cases that website lists. Maybe one of them addresses rather or not they have to pre-announce a checkpoint, since one of the notes mentions a "deviation from a plan"..
Lowe v. Commonwealth, 337 S.E.2d 273 (Va. 1985), cert. den., 475 U.S. 1084 (1986). See also, Crandol v. City of Newport News, 386 S.E.2d 113 (Va. 1989); Simmons v. Commonwealth, 380 S.E.2d 656 (Va. 1989); Hall v. Commonwealth, 406 S.E.2d 674 (Va. App. 1991); Thomas v. Commonwealth, 473 S.E.2d 87 (Va. App. 1996). Deviation in checkpoint location, as stated in plan, will not invalidate the checkpoint. Sheppard v. Commonwealth, 489 S.E.2d 714 (Va. App. 1997). Legal driving maneuvers that reverse a driver's course toward a checkpoint do not justify a stop, Bass v. Commonwealth, 525 S.E.2d 921 (Va. 2000). See also, Murphy v. Commonwealth, 384 S.E. 2d 125 (Va. App. 1989). Certain avoidance maneuvers do justify a stop, Commonwealth v. Eaves, 408 S.E. 2d 925 (Va. App. 1991); Stroud v. Commonwealth, 370 S.E. 2d 721 (Va. App. 1988); Brown v. Commonwealth, 440 S.E, 2d 619 (Va. App. 1994).
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/26/2009 12:43PM by jimmy jingles.