A federal trial court found in favor of the program, but the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals found the program unconstitutional. The City of Indianapolis will now ask the Supreme Court to reverse the ruling when they plead their case today. The crux of the case is whether or not the program fits within the current interpretation of probable cause. The drug roadblock system is an extreme measure that violates a person's Fourth Amendment rights. Probable cause is discarded under this program, as the police are able to stop cars for no reason other than the suspicion that anyone may be transporting drugs.
Probable cause touches many issues.
With the proposed interpretation of probable cause, the FBI would be able to suspect anyone with Internet access of using his e-mail program for illegal activity. It would, therefore, be able to use its questionable and easily abused Carnivore program, which is currently in testing, to screen incoming and outgoing e-mails at random. There is more to the issue of checkpoints than personal privacy. The dissenting opinion of the Circuit Court states that decentralization of the criminal justice system must be taken into account when ruling on whether or not random drug checkpoints are legal. The Supreme Court needs to rule against the random drug checkpoint system.