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WV: Suspicionless police checkpoint was unreasonable

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A police safety checkpoint set up for no apparent reason was unreasonable. State v. Sigler, 2009 W. Va. LEXIS 133 (November 25, 2009): We hold that a stop of a motor vehicle at a police checkpoint such as the stoppage here is intrusive to private citizens. Such an intrusion is by its constitutional nature a seizure. As in Brown, in evaluating the lawfulness of a suspicionless seizure such as here, we believe that a balancing of interests should be considered to determine if such a seizure is permissible under the United States Constitution and the Constitution of West Virginia and these factors should be considered: (1) the gravity of the public concern that is being addressed or served by the checkpoint; (2) the degree to which the checkpoint is likely to succeed in serving this public interest; and (3) the severity with which the checkpoint interferes with individual liberty...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on December 05, 2009 (boomark / email).