State v. Tourtillot

In order to sustain the conviction in this case, the court is prepared to decide that an Oregon state police officer may stop motorists at a temporary "checkpoint” set up at his own discretion in order to investigate whether they perhaps have committed a criminal offense, without either probable cause or grounds for suspicion that any occupant of the vehicle has done so. This result is rationalized by a faulty analysis of the governing constitutional law and, in consequence, of Oregon law. The rationalization has farreaching implications which will set the courts, and thus those who must…