Michigan Sheriff: Random Narcotics Checkpoints Are Totally Constitutional
Genesee County, Michigan Sheriff Robert Pickell is not concerned about the constitutionality of his new method of keeping Flint free of illegal drugs. Fourth Amendment fans, medical marijuana patients, and jumpy motorists are less sure.
According to the Detroit Free Press:
At least seven times [in October] motorists have said they have seen a pickup towing a large sign on I-69 or U.S.-23 that depicts the sheriff's badge and warns: "Sheriff narcotics check point, 1 mile ahead -- drug dog in use."
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 because nearly a half-dozen major roads and expressways pass in and around the city. 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 U-turns-- to the warnings as a pretext for pulling them over anyway.
Pickell won't confirm if anyone has been arrested. He says he welcomes a chat with the American Civil Liberties Union over the matter.
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.
Wayne State University Law School professor Peter Henning said police can set up roadblocks to search all who pass by, but only if a crime has just been committed.
So far nobody has challenged the tactics in order to test their constitutionality. Sheriff Pickell's personal analysis will have to do for now.
Reason on DUI checkpoints (and the nemesis of Democrat New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, DUI checkpoint phone apps!) and the Fourth Amendment.
Also, Radly Balko and Greg Beato on the excessive trust placed in drug dogs (the use of which, according to a 2005 Supreme Court ruling, somehow do not constitute a search).
Editor's Note: We invite comments and request that they be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of Reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason at any time.
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Hmm...alt-text about the Stazi, last name of Steigerwald...poking fun at an authoritarian in order to create plausible deniability that one is in fact oneself an authoritarian...
The clues are subtle, but I've figured you out: Lucy Steigerwald, closet fascist.
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Got Bacon?
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At least seven times [in October] motorists have said they have seen a pickup towing a large sign on I-69 or U.S.-23 that depicts the sheriff's badge and warns: "Sheriff narcotics check point, 1 mile ahead -- drug dog in use."
Check out the picture of the sign. It's like every sheriff in the land uses the exact same graphic design artist that NASCAR uses.
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By what kind of sophistry bullshit are drug roadblocks illegal but alcohol roadblocks are not?
And fuck Robert Pickell.
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Well, Sheriff. We're gonna fuck ya now. But we're gonna fuck ya slow.
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They aren't in my state, because we have a right to privacy... However, the federal case law for legality of DUI checkpoints was Michigan v sitz. Google it for info. There are some substantial differences. Essentially, like all const. Questions, it was a balancing test.
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The same kind of sophistry bullshit that says taking property from an owner and giving it to a private developer is a public use--or that growing pot for personal use and consuming it all in your home state is interstate commerce. I could go on and on.
In most states where DUI roadblocks are allowed, all this sheriff would have to do is call his checkpoints DUI roadblocks, and then he could look for all the drugs he wished. But I believe the Michigan supreme court (after the Sitz decision) prohibited DUI roadblocks under the state constitution. Any MI lawyers care to elaborate on this?
BTW having been to Flint (family matter) before, I could understand if a lot of people there used drugs.
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Isn't it Stasi.
Ministerium für Staatssicherheit
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Yep.
Somehow I was convinced that my sounding it out like a third grader was an acceptable alternative spelling. It is not.
Some history nerd I am!
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That's ok, you are still my favorite.
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I'm your favorite because of my amazing spelling and typing talents, right?
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Those really only show up in the home school threads for some reason.
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Damn you!
And fuck spellcheck, it's homeschool. Not home school.
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I was glad to see the Stasi reference, who are always overlooked in favor of those other guys.
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During the "flag me" website fiasco, Mark Stein had a pretty funny riff on Obama and the Hopenstasi.
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Man's name is Steyn.
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Genesee County Sheriff Robert Pickell is not concerned about the constitutionality of his new method of keeping Flint free of illegal drugs.
I'm shocked. Shocked, I tell you.
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The War on Drugs: It's not supposed to WORK, it's supposed to PAY.
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Wherever revenue collection and the Constitution butt heads, revenue collection will always win.
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I hope this sheriff gets bitchslapped and personally sued, however, being a politician ... Like the legislators who often pass obviously unconstitutional law, he won't be punished. He may even have public support ... Remember sheriffs are ELECTED - and figures he will just wait to get prohibited by the courts, then cry to the electorate that he did his best ... It's called. Politics
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What's the odds the taxpayer will pay for his transgressions?
""He may even have public support ... Remember sheriffs are ELECTED"'
Sheriff Joe?
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Elected every time.
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police can set up roadblocks to search all who pass by, but only if a crime has just been committed.
Well, I'm sure a crime has just been committed somewhere.
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!!RESISTING A POLICE OFFICER!!
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!!INTERFERING WITH A POLICE OFFICER!!
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!!FAILURE TO SAY YES SIR NO SIR!!
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How the hell do you set up a road block and check point on an interstate highway? I'd like to see them try that on the Schuylkill Expressway or the BQE.
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"!!RESISTING A POLICE OFFICER!!"
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You don't ride a motorcycle, do you?
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King George and myself would like to congratulate this upstanding sheriff and nominate him for Tory Loyalist of the Year, in that his demonstrated determination to exercise the government's natural right to control to lives of its subjects as it sees fit is in full and harmonious accord with the regal will. When will these upstart colonials cease with their frivolous demands for "rule of law" and "limited government"? One can not go the closet but some sympathizer of the rabble is crowing about individualism and other such rubbish. Proper enforcement of the sedition laws - that's what's needed.
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Who in the fuck does that Sheriff think he is trying to trample people's civil rights? The Obama DOJ?
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The goose-stepping hicks in Iowa do this shit, too. I got pulled over* on interstate 80 for no legitimate reason and was forced to present my identity papers and be interrogated. "Voluntarily" opening the trunk takes on a unique meaning when you're being held hostage on the side of the road by an armed goon.
*He got into what he thought was my blind spot, and when I attempted to force him to pass me by slowing down, presto! I'm behaving in a suspicious manner. Intentionally stacking up traffic and creating a completely unnecessary hazard; that's some damn fine police work.
But I was obviously a drug mule, because I was driving a car with out of state plates, with bugs plastered all over the front.
On the return trip, they had all the bullshit signs out right before a rest area, like the drugrunners were going to pull in and flush all their bales of dope down the shitter. I couldn't believe I made it through without getting pulled over again.
If the ACLU weren't so fucking busy hyperventilating about Xmas lights in front of City Hall, I might send them an outraged letter. But why waste a stamp?
When he gave me the "Have a safe trip," as I was getting back into my car, I just about blew a gasket.
I hope that fucker gets mowed down by a semi while he's strutting around on the side of the road.
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If the ACLU weren't so fucking busy hyperventilating about Xmas lights in front of City Hall, I might send them an outraged letter. But why waste a stamp?
No shit. I give them money, and then I get these ritalin-fueled e-mail missives back from them about how the ACLU needs my help to prevent grade school bullying. SRSLY.
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It's one thing to be stopped but to be forced to have a cop draw your blood, scares the shit out of me
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Michigan Sheriff: Random Narcotics Checkpoints Are Totally Constitutional
Posted on October 21, 2011, 4:28PM | Lucy Steigerwald
Genesee County, Michigan Sheriff Robert Pickell is not concerned about the constitutionality of his new method of keeping Flint free of illegal drugs. Fourth Amendment fans, medical marijuana patients, and jumpy motorists are less sure.
According to the Detroit Free Press:
At least seven times [in October] motorists have said they have seen a pickup towing a large sign on I-69 or U.S.-23 that depicts the sheriff's badge and warns: "Sheriff narcotics check point, 1 mile ahead -- drug dog in use."
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 because nearly a half-dozen major roads and expressways pass in and around the city. 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 U-turns-- to the warnings as a pretext for pulling them over anyway.Those fuckers would pull you over even if you DIDN'T do anything to give them an excuse, like an illegal u-turn.
Back when I was 17, I was coming home one night and turned onto one of the two main streets through town. The street runs through town for about a half a mile before it crosses I-80 and heads out of town, and down at the far end of it, just before the overpass, they had a DUI checkpoint. They also had road flares and signs warning about the checkpoint for the entire length of the street.
Anyway, in order to get home I had to turn off of it again about a quarter mile before the checkpoint. Knowing the police would think I was trying to evade them, I checked my speed and made sure I didn't do anything to give them an excuse to pull me over.
They pulled me over anyway. The highway patrolman who pulled me over claimed I was "going a little fast." They had to go a quarter mile and turn off onto the road I went down before they could even try to get a fucking radar gun on me, and as I said I was checking my speed, so I knew I wasn't speeding. Fucker lied through his teeth.
Luckily, he didn't give me a ticket; I guess he knew he couldn't get away with it if I challenged it in court, and I was sober, so there was nothing he could get me for.
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Shit. I only meant to quote the last paragraph.
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are you finished yet?
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of the ointment ;-)
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I passed a sign like that for DUI checkpoint on a interstate highway recently.
The sign was posted about a quarter mile before on off ramp, with the checkpoint beyond. And yes, there were more cruisers hiding on the little county cross-road than at the checkpoint.
Take that for what you will.
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I'm only expecting more of this, but along the lines of what they are implementing in Tennessee with VIPR. Hell, maybe they'll just roll it all into one drug/alcohol/terrorist/raw milk sweep along with checking all computers, cellphones, tablets, or what have you.
On another note, look for the OWS to turn into something bad this fall or next year, and being the precursor to nationwide riots and then the implementation of martial law.
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seig heil welcome to the american police state
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public safety overrides the constitution..always.
also, ends justify the means. -
i live close to flint and i was told about this before it happened. their not doing very good on the whole suprise thing. fuck them and fuck the gov. ill smoke weed all day
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oh and Scalia... ends justify the means? throwing non violent offenders in jail for 1 gram of pot and ruining their entire lives to keep lil jodie safe? ha. drugs are here to stay no matter what senseless program the state an gov come up with