reasoning that rationale for sobriety checkpoints applies equally to driver's license/registration checkpoints due to the "mass carnage" caused by unsafe automobiles and unlicensed drivers, but citing no statistics in support
How later courts described this case
- reasoning that rationale for sobriety checkpoints applies equally to driver's license/registration checkpoints due to the "mass carnage" caused by unsafe automobiles and unlicensed drivers, but citing no statistics in support
- stating that while justices’ comments about their views may “have some value in predicting how this court approaches the issue, ... this is not what we mean by precedential authority in our system of jurisprudence”
- recognizing that, in reviewing a suspicionless search under Article I, Section 8, the intrusion upon the individual is balanced against the government’s promotion of legitimate interests
- explaining that the intrusion upon a motorist by a DUI checkpoint is "minimal" where the checkpoint is substantially compliant with guidelines that ensure its constitutionality
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
PAPADAKOS, Justice,
concurring.
I most reluctantly agree and join with the majority in concluding that systematic, non-discriminatory, non-arbitrary roadblocks are constitutional under the Pennsylvania Constitution and that 75 Pa.C.S. § 6308(b), authorizing such roadblocks, does not offend our constitution. I indicated as much in my concurring opinion in Commonwealth v. Tarbert 517 Pa. 277 , 535 A.2d 1035 (1987).
My reluctance arises from a concern over the manner in which the police will comport themselves with the traveling public while conducting these roadblocks. The traveling public may have to yield to this type of minimal intrusion in the balancing of interests approach. But the public has a right to be free from abusive intrusion. All too often complaints arise that the police get carried away and abuse their authority in such mass detection efforts.
I will closely watch the scene with the assurance that the police will conduct themselves in a courteous, professional manner as is usually their wont. Any other conduct will not be condoned and this matter will be reconsidered. For the most part in these roadblocks, the police will be dealing with law-abiding citizens and not wanted felons. I hope the police keep this uppermost in their minds.