Michigan Sheriff: Random Narcotics Checkpoints Are Totally Constitutional

Michigan Sheriff: Random Narcotics Checkpoints Are Totally Constitutional:

...... The checkpoints are part of a broad sweep for drugs that [Pickell] and his self-titled "Sheriff's Posse" said are needed, calling Flint a crossroads of drug dealing ... Pickell said he decided to try checkpoints when he learned that drug shipments might be passing through Flint in tractor-trailers with false compartments.

After some outcry, Pickell's posse have begun making these checkpoints more sporadic. Pickell also admits to using drivers' reactions - say, nervous illegal Uturns- to the warnings as a pretext for pulling them over anyway.

--SNIP--

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled in 1990 that DUI checkpoints were illegal, but the U.S. Court leaves the matter up to the states, under certain conditions. And:

Based on a case out of Indianapolis, the U.S. Supreme Court held in 2000 that narcotics checkpoints where everyone gets stopped on a public road are not legal and violate Fourth Amendment protections against illegal searches and seizures, professor David Moran at the University of Michigan Law School said.....


(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...