City of Seattle v. Mesiani

Petitioners in this consolidated appeal challenge the constitutionality of a sobriety checkpoint program established by the Seattle Police Department during the holiday season of 1983-84. Terese Mesiani represents a group of defendants charged with criminal violations after being stopped at sobriety checkpoints. C. Steven Fury represents a group of plaintiffs routinely stopped at the sobriety checkpoints without individualized suspicion or probable cause. In both cases the trial court found the sobriety checkpoints violated article 1, section 7 of the Washington Constitution, but the Court of…