Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

Wildlife poaching checkpoint leaving a national park was valid

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Wildlife poaching checkpoint led to defendant's arrest for DUI. The checkpoint was legitimately set up and reasonably conducted. United States v. Fraire, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84382 (E.D. Cal. October 8, 2008): The Government argues that the checkpoint's "special law enforcement concern" (poaching) entitled Ranger Felix to stop Mr. Fraire "without individualized suspicion." The Government points to Illinois v. Lidster, 540 U.S. 419, 423, 124 S.Ct. 885 (2004), where the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment forbids stops without individualized suspicion for general "crime control" purposes "in the absence of special circumstances." The fact that a vehicle stops "normally lack individualized suspicion cannot by itself determine the constitutional outcome" in that the "Fourth Amendment does not treat a motorist's car has his castle" and "special law enforcement concerns will sometimes justify highway stops without individualized suspicion...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on October 23, 2008 (boomark / email).