Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

October 21, 2011

A decade and a half ago, the Supreme Court upheld the use of warrantless ?sobriety checkpoints.? Targeted seat belt enforcement checkpoints have become commonplace. Michigan?s Genesee County is expanding this practice to include warrantless ?drug checkpoints.?

Reports the Detroit Free Press:

?Motorists driving on expressways around Flint are getting surprised by a stunning tactic that the Genesee County sheriff has been using to fight the flow of illegal drugs ? one that legal experts said will not withstand a court challenge?. [M]otorists 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.??

University of Michigan law professor David Moran points out that a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision held that similar open-ended, all-encompassing narcotics checkpoints in Indianapolis were unconstitutional. He points out that one tactic used by the Genessee County Sheriff?s Office ? waiting to stop motorists who make a last-minute U-turn to avoid the illicit checkpoints ? is ?perilously close to entrapment.?

?It?s just the kind of shabby treatment that the Fourth Amendment was designed to prevent,? Moran concludes. Alas, the Fourth Amendment is a dead letter in our degenerate police state.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.