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The ACLU is similarly up in arms over DD checks: > The ACLU welcomes today's Supreme Court's decision in Missouri v. McNeely. Writing for the majority, Justice
by lwf 8y ago
The ACLU is similarly up in arms over DD checks:
> The ACLU welcomes today's Supreme Court's decision in Missouri v. McNeely. Writing for the majority, Justice Sonia Sotomayor upheld the 4th Amendment's privacy protections by rejecting the proposition that states may routinely compel drivers to submit to a blood test in drunk-driving cases without consent and without a warrant.
> We know from experience that drunk-driving laws can be strictly enforced without abandoning constitutional rights. Today's decision appropriately recognizes what half the states have already demonstrated – that maintaining highway safety does not require sacrificing personal privacy.
https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/victory-supreme-court-finds-drunk-driving-laws-can-be-strictly-enforced https://www.aclu.org/blog/criminal-law-reform/victory-suprem...
From 1984:
> [...] the American Civil Liberties Union has filed suit to stop a new sobriety-checkpoint program in California. The ACLU says the program is a "substantial invasion of . . . fundamental constitutional rights."
> In its California brief, pending at the state Court of Appeals in San Francisco, the ACLU argues that if sobriety checkpoints are upheld "it will not be long before the police establish roadblocks and checkpoints for investigations of other sorts of serious crimes."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/12/16/aclu-sues-on-use-of-roadblocks/48753b6c-0852-4b63-85ef-db0d38d37135/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1984/12/16/a...
- sonnyblarney 8y agoThanks for the data points. As a Canadian, I know we have legal DD stops and I'm thankful for them, as society went from a period of 'DD was normal' to 'not ok'. It took a while, it was a real social problem. I guess we (Canadians?) just view public safety a little differently, it's usually a matter of 'what makes sense' not so much a thing about constitutionality. That said, our cops are way, way more low key than US cops. I have no problem with being randomly pulled over for a reasonable reason by reasonable cops. I guess it gets more complicated when a) cops abuse power b) the randomness is not random c) when there's an underlying political tension d) you can be charged with 'anything' almost ...
- rayiner 8y agoThe US cares so much about constitutionality (and hard and fast rules generally), and eschews leaving things to peoples’ “reasonable” discretion, because a large subset of the population is completely nuts. One of our au pair’s au pair friend got pulled over by state police and had a gun pulled on her. Coming from Germany she of course freaked out. (Luckily she was a white European young lady instead of a person of color.) Americans not only see nothing wrong with that, but keep voting for the sheriffs who allow their departments to run that way.