UnHaappy Wrote:
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> Checkpoints absolutely go against Constitution
>
> “The right of the people to be secure in their
> persons, houses, papers, and effects, against
> unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be
> violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon
> probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation,
> and particularly describing the place to be
> searched, and the persons or things to be
> seized.”
Yes they are. Look it up!
The basic regulations governing DWI checkpoints were laid out many years ago by the US Supreme Court in Michigan State Police v. Sitz, 496 US 444 (1990), and the New York State Court of Appeals in People v. Scott, 63 NY2d 518 (1984), which ruled that the use of DWI checkpoints by law enforcement is permissible under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution if certain criteria are followed. These criteria can be summarized as follows:
First, the DWI checkpoint must be conducted pursuant to explicit regulations which circumscribe the discretion of the officers in terms of site selection for the location of the roadblock.
Second, the regulations must require that vehicles be stopped according to wholly uniform and neutral criteria, such as the stopping of every car or every fourth car.
Third, the initial observation and questioning must be brief and limited to inquiries regarding the driver's license, vehicle registration, insurance and proof of inspection; see Sitz at pp. 453; Scott at pp. 526-27.
Based on these and other court rulings, most law enforcement agencies have adopted written regulations for use in conducting their DWI checkpoints. Checkpoints conducted pursuant to such guidelines insure that totally objective and neutral criteria are utilized by the officers in determining who gets stopped and that the intrusion on the motorist remains minimal.
http://www.legalsurvival.com/dwilink/vol35.html