Court: D.C. Police Checkpoints Unconstitutional

By Mike Scarcella

A federal appeals court today unanimously ruled in favor of a group of D.C. residents who are challenging vehicle checkpoints used by the Metropolitan Police Department.

The four plaintiffs, represented by Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice, sued the city, claiming the police "neighborhood safety zone" program is unconstitutional. The temporary vehicle checkpoints were initiated last year and set up in response to violence in the Trinidad neighborhood in Northeast Washington.

Police barred 48 motorists—including the four plaintiffs—from entry into the neighborhood in June 2008 when the motorists failed to provide sufficient information about where the motorist was going. A district court judge in D.C. rejected a motion for a preliminary injunction against the city.

A three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today ruled that case should be heard in the trial court with additional proceedings.

Chief Judge David Sentelle, who wrote the opinion for the appeals court, was joined by Judges Douglas Ginsburg and Judith Rogers. The court found the plaintiffs meet the requisites for the granting of a preliminary injunction. "It is apparent that appellants' constitutional rights are violated," Sentelle wrote.

“We believe this is a major victory. The program itself is unprecedented by its extreme character,” Verheyden-Hilliard said. “We’ve asserted from the beginning that this program was blatantly unconstitutional.”

Comments

[john]

I would not recommend addressing a DC cop
in that manner.

Polite and firm insistence on your
well-understood constitutional rights
may also be going a little too far
unless your attorney is present.
Even then, be prepared for a beat-down.
Later (much later), enjoy your settlement
from the comfort of your hospital bed.

[monrose]

Those who give up freedom for temporary safety will find themselves right smack back in slavery. Don't stop at segregation. Keep on by Jim Crow, just go right on back to the plantation and put on your cottong pickin' suits and start pickin that cotton for the massah.

[Justin Hansford]

This is a great victory for the citizens of Washington D.C! Hopefully it will embolden more people to bring suits against the police abuses and extremes that take place in washington dc, primarily against low income communities.

[Christopher J Hoffman]

Thank God. How is it, that lay people like this lowly musician can predict the outcome of constitutional issues like this one with greater clarity than a district court judge.

Where do these judges get their education? How are they vetted? And how can they have so little sense of the blatant unconstitutionality of cases like this? This is stuff I learned in high school. Astounding!

[Steve Candelario]

I am elated that the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. had the brains to see that this program was unconstitutional. It's dissapointing that it went on this long. If this should ever happen to me, I would tell the Officer to go pound sand.