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Ninth Circuit:
Requiring a Showing of Driver’s License at Sobriety Checkpoint Is Constitutional
By a MetNews Staff Writer
A city did not violate the Fourth Amendment rights of motorists by instituting a policy of checking drivers’ licenses of persons stopped at a sobriety checkpoint, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held yesterday.
Judge Daniel P. Collins authored the opinion. It affirmed a summary judgment granted by District Court Judge Morrison C. England Jr. of the Eastern District of California in favor of the City of Vallejo in Solano County.
The challenge was brought by David Demarest, a resident of Vermont who, while visiting California, was stopped at a checkpoint and repeatedly refused to produce a driver’s license, resulting in his arrest. He was charged with resisting arrest and possessing a concealed “dirk or dagger,” was granted diversion, and, after successful completion of that program, the charges were dismissed.
He sued under 42 U.S.C. §1983, a civil rights statute.
No Impermissible Purpose
Collins said that “[b]ecause the City’s checkpoint did not have any impermissible primary purpose of advancing the general interest in crime control” and was therefore not “per se invalid,” under U.S. Supreme Court decisions, the inquiry becomes whether it was reasonable under the circumstances. He wrote:
“[W]e conclude that the City’s systematic addition of driver’s license checks to an otherwise valid DUI checkpoint was objectively reasonable under the Fourth Amendment.…Given that the [Supreme] Court has said that removing unlicensed drivers from the road serves a ‘vital interest’ in ‘highway safety’ that would itself justify a traffic checkpoint…, a request to produce licenses at an otherwise valid DUI checkpoint clearly serves an equally weighty interest.”
He said license checks do not entail a suspicious that the individual is engaged in criminality, the prolongation of the stop is “marginal, if not de minimis,” and there were sufficient guidelines to minimize use of discretion.
‘Marginal Intrusion’
“On balance, any marginal intrusion on liberty associated with adding license checks to the City’s DUI checkpoint is minimal and is justified by the important interest in road safety served by such inquiries,” Collins wrote.
There was probable cause to arrest Demarest, the judge declared, based on a belief that he was in violation of California Vehicle Code §12951(b) which provides:
“The driver of a motor vehicle shall present his or her license for examination upon demand of a peace officer enforcing the provisions of this code.”
The case is Demarest v. City of Vallejo, 20-15872.
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