Drivers license and registration check points violate both Constitutions, thus are unlawful.

In March 2011, first-term representative Glen Bradley of Youngsville introduced House Bill 375 in the NC General Assembly, which would clarify that checkpoints are illegal in the state. Law enforcement refers to roadblocks as checkpoints, check points, or safety checkpoints. The US Supreme Court has ruled that checkpoints are seizures without a warrant and without probable cause, and as such are unconstitutional in violation of the fourth amendment of the Bill of Rights, but the court specifies there are exceptions, which allow police to violate the law in the name of public safety. For example, if police received a tip that there are religious extremists with a bomb on the way to blow up a building, there may be good reason to conduct a roadblock. It would still be illegal, but it would be an allowed exception to the Bill of Rights.

Apparently, HB 375 fell by the wayside in the NC General Assembly. If it were to become law, those roadblocks, which stop traffic and violate everyone’s rights might become just a bad memory of a state, which was rapidly becoming a police state rather than a free state.

– Christine Hatfield, Mill Spring