“I rather doubt that the Framers of the Fourth Amendment would have considered “reasonable” a program of indiscriminate stops of individuals not suspected of wrongdoing.” Said Justice Clarence Thomas in his dissention for Michigan Dept. of State Police v. Sitz. The case debated the dispute of whether or not sobriety checkpoints are legal or a violation of Fourth Amendment rights. According to this amendment citizens are protected “against unreasonable searches and seizures…[without] probable cause.” So it seems the Constitution prohibits people from being stopped without a search warrant or at least without probable cause that they have committed a crime.
The Supreme Court decided that sobriety roadblocks are an exception to the rule in a vote of 6-3 in 1990. According to Justice Rehnquist “the state interest in reducing drunk driving outweighed this minor infringement.” However the Court placed several stipulations on sobriety checkpoints including a neutral formula for selecting which vehicles to stop (i.e. every other car), clear warning lights and signs, limitations on the time and length of a checkpoint to limit the length of motorist detention and maximize effectiveness, and advance notice to promote the deterrent effect of checkpoints. In spite of these restrictions on sobriety checkpoints, there are still eleven states that prohibit them altogether.
Recently there was an article in the Washington Post that described how a local citizen, Lisa Davis was stopped at a checkpoint in the District of Columbia. She was obeying every law and was not intoxicated when stopped, but the law enforcement official asked her personal information for a federal database used for racial profiling studies, crime-solving, and traffic stops. “I’ve got some serious constitutional issues with that. I feel like it’s a violation of my rights. It’s a slippery slope to Big Brother,” said Davis.
Justice Stevens noted in his dissension that “the findings of the trial court, based on an extensive record and affirmed by the Michigan Court of Appeals, indicate that the net effect of sobriety checkpoints on traffic safety is infinitesimal and possibly negative.” According to the American Beverage Institute, “An analysis of the NHTSA [National Highway Traffic Safety Administration] numbers shows: Every one of the 11 non-roadblock states saw a decline in alcohol-related fatalities, while almost half of roadblock states saw an increase in alcohol-related fatalities.”
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