{"id":15336,"date":"2015-01-06T17:36:53","date_gmt":"2015-01-06T22:36:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=15336"},"modified":"2015-01-06T17:36:53","modified_gmt":"2015-01-06T22:36:53","slug":"new-law-review-article-counterterrorism-roadblocks-constitutional-under-the-fourth-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=15336","title":{"rendered":"New Law Review Article: Counterterrorism Roadblocks: Constitutional Under the Fourth Amendment?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Salda\u00f1a, Counterterrorism Roadblocks: Constitutional Under the Fourth Amendment?<\/a>, 40 Ohio N.U.L. Rev. 585 (2014). Abstract:<\/p>\n

In the wake of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, this Article considers the constitutionality of a counterterrorism roadblock \u201cset up to thwart an imminent terrorist attack.\u201d It explores the unique line of cases permitting suspicionless, warrantless seizures of vehicles and their occupants at highway checkpoints (i.e. roadblocks) whose \u201cprimary purpose\u201d is something other than \u201cdetect[ing] evidence of ordinary criminal wrongdoing.\u201d Under this line of cases, the requirement, under the Fourth Amendment, that police officers develop probable cause \u2014 or, in limited situations, individualized suspicion \u2014 prior to effecting a seizure, is abandoned, so long as the seizure is \u201creasonable.\u201d This reasoning, contained in the 2000 case City of Indianapolis v. Edmond, is distinct from, though related to, the so-called \u201cspecial needs\u201d doctrine. <\/p>\n

While writing for the Court in Edmond, Justice Sandra Day O\u2019Connor suggested in dictum that \u201cthe Fourth Amendment would almost certainly permit an appropriately tailored roadblock set up to thwart an imminent terrorist attack or to catch a dangerous criminal who is likely to flee by way of a particular route.\u201d O\u2019Connor\u2019s dictum is the closest the Supreme Court has come to deciding the constitutionality of counterterrorism roadblocks. Since its appearance more than a decade ago, several circuit courts and two Supreme Court Justices have noted it favorably. This Article contends that a ruling upholding an \u201cappropriately tailored\u201d counterterrorism roadblock would fit neatly within the already established line of roadblock cases, which \u2014 along with related exceptions to Fourth Amendment requirements, in other contexts, under the special needs doctrine \u2014 has already done the work of expanding the power of police and other government officials to conduct suspicionless searches and seizures in service of public safety and at the expense of individual liberties.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Salda\u00f1a, Counterterrorism Roadblocks: Constitutional Under the Fourth Amendment?, 40 Ohio N.U.L. Rev. 585 (2014). Abstract: In the wake of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings, this Article considers the constitutionality of a counterterrorism roadblock \u201cset up to thwart an imminent … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-roadblocks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15337,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15336\/revisions\/15337"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}