Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Fourth Amendment

Criminal Law

: Fourth Amendment

Fourth Amendment news--"Biometric Scans for Traffic Stops"

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

On PrisonPlanet.com: Biometric Scans for Traffic Stops, with a YouTube video of Milwaukee police using fingerprint scanners on drivers. This thoughtful piece makes cogent points about the fingerprint dragnet of Davis v. Mississippi from 1969 and personal security from Schmerber v. California from 1966. In Delaware v. Prouse in 1979, however, the Court held that random stops of drivers to check the validity of their licenses and safety equipment were unreasonable. In a throwaway paragraph designed to get votes, the Court said in dicta that roadblocks to check papers would reasonable, even though that was not the issue: Accordingly, we hold that except in those situations in which there is at least articulable and reasonable suspicion that a motorist is unlicensed or that an automobile is not registered, or that either the vehicle or an occupant is otherwise subject to seizure for violation of law, stopping an automobile and detaining the driver in order to check his driver's license and the registration of the automobile are unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 29, 2010 (boomark / email).