Opinion ID: 2041031
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Delaware v. Prouse 440 U.S. 648, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979).

Text: A county patrolman stopped Prouse's car to check his license and registration without having observed traffic or equipment violations or any suspicious activity. The Court held that the Fourth Amendment requires at least articulable and reasonable suspicion that a motorist is unlicensed or that an automobile is not registered, or that he is violating some other law. Though accepting as vital the State's interest in promoting highway safety by apprehending unlicensed drivers, unregistered or stolen vehicles, and drug or alcohol intoxicated drivers, the Court said: The question remains, however, whether in the service of these important ends the discretionary spot check is a sufficiently productive mechanism to justify the intrusion upon Fourth Amendment interests which such stops entail. On the record before us, that question must be answered in the negative. Given the alternative mechanisms available, both those in use and those that might be adopted, we are unconvinced that the incremental contribution to highway safety of the random spot check justifies the practice under the Fourth Amendment. 440 U.S. at 659, 99 S.Ct. at 1399. The Court concluded that the marginal contribution to roadway safety from spot checks did not justify subjecting the lawful motorist to this seizure: By hypothesis, stopping apparently safe drivers is necessary only because the danger presented by some drivers is not observable at the time of the stop. When there is not probable cause to believe that a driver is violating any one of the multitude of applicable traffic and equipment regulations or other articulable basis amounting to reasonable suspicion that the driver is unlicense or his vehicle unregistered  we cannot conceive of any legitimate basis upon which a patrolman could decide that stopping a particular driver for a spot check would be more productive than stopping any other driver. 440 U.S. at 661, 99 S.Ct. at 1400 (emphasis added).