Aren’t sobriety checkpoints illegal?
No, they are legal. In 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of sobriety checkpoints in Michigan vs. Sitz. The court decided that the interest in reducing the incidences of impaired driving was sufficient to justify the brief intrusion of a properly conducted sobriety checkpoint. If conducted properly, sobriety checkpoints do not constitute illegal search and seizure in most states. Thirty-nine states, plus the District of Columbia, can legally conduct sobriety checkpoints. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration I thought sobriety checkpoints were illegal in Indiana. The Indiana Supreme Court ruled that sobriety checkpoints do not violate Indiana’s Constitution when implemented pursuant to a properly approved, minimally intrusive, neutral plan with standardized instructions and explicit guidance for officers to protect against inconsistent enforcement and a narrow objective.
