APRI Highlights - Spring 2004

A Motorist’s Car is Not His Castle

John Bobo Director National Traffic Law Center

On January 13, 2004, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that informational checkpoints did not violate the Fourth Amendment, reversing an Illinois Supreme Court decision. In a six to three vote, the majority of the court stated that “The Fourth Amendment does not treat a motorist’s car as his castle….And special law enforcement concerns will sometimes justify highway stops without individualized suspicion.” Illinois v. Lidster, 540 U.S.___(2004).

A week after a fatal hit and run, Illinois police were at a standstill in their homicide investigation. An area canvas of people had turned up nothing, so police set up a road-block at the same place and time as the fatality. Their hope was that drivers who worked on that night might be passing the same area at the same time of night a week later. Police designed this information checkpoint to get more information about the fatality from motorists, distributing flyers to drivers requesting assistance in identifying the vehicle and driver that killed the 70-year-old bicyclist.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that informational checkpoints are not automatically presumed constitutional, but that the checkpoints are subject to a reasonableness test similar to that defined by the court in Brown v. Texas, 443 U.S. 46, 51 (1979): “the gravity of the public concerns served by the seizure, the degree to which the seizure advances the public interest, and the severity of the interference with individual tests.” The court also said the balancing test in checkpoint cases was similar to that of Michigan Dept. of State Police v. Sitz, 496 U.S. 444 (1990).

In this case, the court found that the Illinois State Police’s roadblock was a brief, minimal intrusion that served a grave public interest and that it was tailored to fit important criminal investigatory needs. The court went further to say police were following what the law ordinarily permits—the ability to ask for voluntary cooperation from members of the public.

For more information, contact APRI’s National Traffic Law Center at trafficlaw@ndaa-apri.org or (703) 549-4253.