low_delta

CASE:
City of Indianapolis, et al v. James Edmond, et al

ISSUE:
When police set up traffic checkpoints looking for signs of drug use, walking a narcotics detecting dog around the car, and examining drivers’ licenses and registration does that practice violate the Constitution’s protection against unreasonable searches?

DECISION:
The US Supreme Court stopped a growing national trend of pulling cars over to check for illegal drug trafficking.

In a 6-3 ruling , the court pronounced such drug checkpoints a violation of the protection against unreasonable searches, voting that it’s improper to check for drugs when the police have no suspicion that a driver may be engaged in drug trafficking.

The court said checkpoints for general crime control aren’t allowed under the 4th amendment’s guarantee against unreasonable searches. The justices, however, said other kinds of checkpoints to look for drunk drivers or to check for a driver’s license and registration are allowed, since they have a higher purpose, of keeping the highways safe.

That sounded pretty reasonable until that last sentence.
I guess that using a breathalyzer is not a search that is protected by the constitution.