For the 14th St checkpoint the other night, reporting had authorities saying: we’re checking for functioning taillights and seatbelt compliance and also: we’re checking for licenses and immigration status. I’m now very unclear on the legality of these checkpoints?
That feels very illegal to me! I haven't researched it recently, but that feels like a checkpoint for general law enforcement, which IIRC is a 4th Amendment problem. You can have an immigration checkpoint, and you can have a DWI checkpoint, but you can't have a checkpoint for all the things.
I used to write motions challenging the scope of DWI checkpoints when they expanded to check for things like insurance and registration.
is stopping to check insurance and registration a seizure in a way that a dwi checkpoint is not? is combination itself a problem? or does dwi have an exigency that justifies an otherwise unlawful seizure?
It's been years, and I can't look it up right now, but my memory is that DWI checkpoints specifically are ok b/c they are both justified by a serious public safety concern and tied to the roads (unlike, say, checkpoints to look for drugs). Paperwork doesn't have the same public safety justification
thanks!
Definitely do not bet on my being correct about it!
that's okay, I assure you that your uncompensated responses to my idle and I'm sure ignorant musings are being held to a very low bar
This explainer from 15 years ago is still pretty good on the law. Hasn't developed much recently. www.aclu-sdic.org/sites/defaul...
Whatever happened to the ACLU? Can't remember the last time I heard them suing the Trump admin
So, they're illegal? They're not being conducted within a reasonable distance of the border.
The ocean is the border
i was misremembering, your cite to ACLU / what CBP thinks the border is, are right on. that should be external, maritime borders, not including the Great Lakes or eg the Souris and Roseau Rivers, which I had not heard of before right now. Who names a river Mouse anyway. cc @asgvisalaw.bsky.social
Seems like it was a bad decision when we decided the 4th Amendment doesn't apply within 100 miles of the border (i.e., like 90% of the country by population and every single large city save Denver.)