Court Opinion

ID: 9648852
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 14:36:45.014313+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:08:15.308459
License: Public Domain

PASHMAN, J.,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. The majority has made two fundamental errors in summarily rejecting defendant’s contention that his prosecution was founded upon the unconstitutional seizure of his automobile. The majority assumes without discussion that the recent decision of the United States Supreme Court in Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. 648, 99 S.Ct. 1391, 59 L.Ed.2d 660 (1979), represents such a change in federal constitutional law as to require prospective effect only. This assumption is mistaken, for Prouse is nothing but an application of settled Fourth Amendment doctrine which was first stated in Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). Secondly, the majority fails again to give proper consideration to the “imperative of judicial integrity” which mandates that even major changes in the character of fundamental rights be applied with consistency to cases pending on direct appellate review. See State v. Howery, 80 N.J. 563, 575 (1979) (Pashman, J., dissenting). The majority opinion reflects no awareness that its approach to constitutional decision making allows similarly situated defendants to be treated differently.
*557I
The majority considers Delaware v. Prouse, supra, in a jurisprudential vacuum and reaches the conclusion that it is a new decision. But it is not new law, and for that reason does not present an occasion for prospective overruling.
The retroactivity of a judicial decision is at issue only where it constitutes a “sharp break” with the line of earlier authority. If it does not, then retroactive application follows. This threshold test has been variously articulated in both civil and criminal settings.1 In Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U.S. 97, 106, 92 S.Ct. 349, 355, 30 L.Ed.2d 296 (1971), the Supreme Court stated that “the decision to be applied nonretroactively must establish a new principle of law, either by overruling clear past precedent on which litigants may have relied,' * * * or by deciding an issue of first impression whose resolution was not clearly foreshadowed * * *. ” (Citations omitted). The Court in Desist v. United States, 394 U.S. 244, 248, 89 S.Ct. 1030, 1032, 22 L.Ed. 2d 248 (1969), simply required that there be “a clear break with *558the past.” In Hanover Shoe, Inc. v. United Shoe Mach. Corp., 392 U.S. 481, 499, 88 S.Ct. 2224, 2234, 20 L.Ed.2d 1231 (1968), the Supreme Court stated that the question of the prospective application of a decision could not even arise unless there was either “a sharp break in the line of earlier authority or an avulsive change which caused the current of the law thereafter to flow between new banks.” See, e. g., United States v. Bowen, 500 F.2d 960, 975 n. 1 (9th Cir. 1974), aff’d, 422 U.S. 916, 95 S.Ct. 2569, 45 L.Ed.2d 641 (1975); Gosa v. Mayden, 413 U.S. 665, 672-673, 93 S.Ct. 2926, 2932-2933, 37 L.Ed.2d 873 (1973); Michigan v. Payne, 412 U.S. 47, 51, 93 S.Ct. 1966, 1968, 36 L.Ed.2d 736 (1973).
The “sharp break” standard has its origins in Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. 618, 85 S.Ct. 1731, 14 L.Ed.2d 601 (1965), which held that the exclusionary rule of Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. 643, 81 S.Ct. 1684, 6 L.Ed.2d 1081 (1961), would not be applied retroactively to vacate state convictions which had become final before the Mapp decision.2 Linkletter held that the Federal Constitution neither prohibits nor requires retroactivity for “new” rules according criminal defendants greater constitutional protections. 381 U.S. at 629, 85 S.Ct. at 1737, 14 L.Ed.2d at 608. The Court’s use of the “sharp break” test, and its presumption of retroactivity in the absence of a “sharp break” with the past, was founded on one of the classic notions of common-law adjudication: “the duty of the court was not to ‘pronounce a new law, but to maintain and expound the old one.’ ” Id. at 622 623, 85 S.Ct. at 1734 (quoting 1 Blackstone, Commentaries 69 (15th ed. 1809)). While the Court has firmly rejected the legal fiction that “all new interpretations of the Constitution must be considered always to have been the law and that prior constructions to the *559contrary must always be ignored,” Williams v. United States, 401 U.S. at 651, 91 S.Ct. at 1151, 28 L.Ed.2d at 394 (citing Linkletter v. Walker), the Court has maintained that absent an overturning of the “prevailing statutory or constitutional norm,” United States v. Peltier, 422 U.S. 531, 542, 95 S.Ct. 2313, 2320, 45 L.Ed.2d 374 (1975), a decision still carries a presumption of retroactivity. See Williams v. United States, supra.3
Although the majority contends that the “sharp break” test was “quite plainly abandoned altogether” by the Supreme Court in United States v. Peltier, ante at 550, I can find no such evidence of its abandonment. The majority in Peltier made no mention of the “sharp break” analysis in its opinion. The Court’s discussion was confined to the retroactive application of “new constitutional doctrine” or a “new constitutional principle,” 422 U.S. 535, 95 S.Ct. 2316, 45 L.Ed.2d 379, and was thus consistent with the “sharp break” analysis. It is difficult to believe that the Court would by mere silence overrule such a firmly-established doctrine. Moreover, in Peltier the Court declined to retroactively apply its decision in Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U.S. 266, 93 S.Ct. 2535, 37 L.Ed.2d 596 (1973), *560in which the Court held warrantless border searches without probable cause unconstitutional. Because Almeida-Sanchez “significantly expanded the scope of Fourth Amendment protection,” United States v. Dien, 609 F.2d 1038, 1046 (2d Cir. 1979), the threshold “sharp break” test was implicitly satisfied in Peltier.
Even after the Supreme Court’s decision in Peltier, courts have continued to apply variations of the “sharp break” analysis when retroactivity questions have arisen in Fourth Amendment cases. See, e. g., United States v. Tucker, 610 F.2d 1007, 1010-1013 (2d Cir. 1979) (applying Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 60 L.Ed.2d 824 (1979), retroactively because it established no “new principle of law” (quoting Chevron Oil Co. v. Huson, 404 U.S. at 106, 92 S.Ct. at 355, 30 L.Ed.2d at 305)); United States v. Dien, 609 F.2d at 1046 (applying Arkansas v. Sanders, 442 U.S. 753, 99 S.Ct. 2586, 61 L.Ed.2d 235 (1979), retroactively because “unlike Peltier * * * we are not applying a decision of the court that significantly expanded the scope of Fourth Amendment protection. Rather, Sanders, merely gave further clarity to a doctrine that was in force at least since [United States v.] Chadwick [433 U.S. 1, 97 S.Ct. 2476, 53 L.Ed.2d 538]”; United States v. Schleis, 582 F.2d 1166, 1174 (8th Cir. 1978)(en banc) (applying United States v. Chadwick retroactively because “Chadwick announces no new constitutional doctrine, nor does it broaden any existing exclusionary rule”); United States v. Martinez, 526 F.2d 954, 955-956 (5th Cir. 1976) (applying United States v. Ortiz, 422 U.S. 891, 95 S.Ct. 2585, 45 L.Ed.2d 623 (1975), and United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 95 S.Ct. 2574, 45 L.Ed.2d 607 (1975), retroactively because they neither established a new rule in an overruling decision nor a new constitutional principle).
Applying this threshold analysis to the case before us, it can be seen that Delaware v. Prouse, supra, did not state a new constitutional doctrine in “sharp break” with the past. Prior to the random stop at issue — which occurred on November 13, *5611976 — the Supreme Court had already decided United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, supra. That case held that the practice by roving border patrol agents of stopping without cause any vehicle near the international border violated the Fourth Amendment. The Court’s reasoning in Brignoni-Ponce began with the following general statement of the law of search and seizure:
The Fourth Amendment applies to all seizures of the person, Including seizures that Involve only a brief detention short of traditional arrest. Davis v. Mississippi, 394 U.S. 721, 89 S.Ct. 1394, 22 L.Ed.2d 676 (1969); Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 16-19, 88 S.Ct. 1868, [1877], 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968). “[Whenever a police officer accosts an individual and restrains his freedom to walk away, he has ‘seized’ that person,” Terry v. Ohio, supra, at 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889, and the Fourth Amendment requires that the seizure be “reasonable.” As with other categories of police action subject to Fourth Amendment constraints, the reasonableness of such seizures depends on a balance between the public interest and the individual’s right to personal security free from arbitrary interference by law officers. Terry v. Ohio, supra, at 20-21, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889; Camara v. Municipal Court, 387 U.S. 523, 536-537, 87 S.Ct. 1727 [1734], 18 L.Ed.2d 930 (1967). [422 U.S. at 878, 95 S.Ct. at 2578-2579, 45 L.Ed.2d at 614.]
Based on these general principles, the Court found a requirement of “reasonable suspicion” falling short of probable cause protected both the interests of the public in law enforcement and of border residents in personal privacy. See id. at 883, 95 S.Ct. at 2581, 45 L.Ed.2d at 617.
Although the decision in Brignoni-Ponce expressly reserved consideration of the limits of official discretion in making spot cheeks of licenses and registrations, see id. at 883 n. 8, 95 S.Ct. at 2581 n. 8, 45 L.Ed.2d at 618; see also United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 560 n. 14, 96 S.Ct. 3074, 3084 n. 14, 49 L.Ed.2d 1116 (1976), the Court’s decision in Prouse was clearly not a “sharp break” with prior law. The case established no new doctrines, but rather merely applied settled principles of constitutional liberties, first enunciated in Terry v. Ohio, to investigate stops by state and local police. See 440 U.S. at 653 655, 99 *562S.Ct at 1395-1397, 59 L.Ed.2d at 667-668. The Court found Brignoni-Ponce to be directly applicable:
We cannot agree that stopping or detaining a vehicle on an ordinary city street is less intrusive than a roving-patrol stop on a major highway and that it bears greater resemblance to a permissible stop and secondary detention at a checkpoint near the border. In this regard, we note that Brignoni-Ponce was not limited to roving-patrol stops on limited-access roads, but applied to any roving-patrol stop by Border Patrol agents on any type of roadway on less than reasonable suspicion. * * * We cannot assume that the physical and psychological intrusion visited upon the occupants of a vehicle by a random stop to check documents is of any less moment than that occasioned by a stop by border agents on roving patrol. Both of these stops generally entail law enforcement officers signaling a moving automobile to pull over to the side of the roadway, by means of a possibly unsettling show of authority. Both interfere with freedom of movement, are inconvenient, and consume time. Both may create substantial anxiety. [Delaware v. Prouse, 440 U.S. at 657, 99 S.Ct. at 1398, 59 L.Ed.2d at 659 (citations omitted)]
Since Prouse was simply an application of familiar principles of search and seizure law, it does not “constitute a sharp break in the line of earlier authority or an avulsive change” in the law. Hanover Shoe, Inc. v. United Mach. Corp., 392 U.S. at 499, 88 S.Ct. at 2234, 20 L.Ed.2d at 1244. Whatever support that might have been derived from earlier cases of this Court concerning random seizures, see State v. Gray, 59 N.J. 563, 567 (1971); State v. Kabayama, 98 N.J.Super. 85, 87-88, 236 A.2d 164 (App.Div.1967), aff’d o. b., 52 N.J. 507 (1968), was undercut by the clearly expressed principles governing investigative detentions in Brignoni-Ponce,4 That case, decided after the cases of *563this Court which purportedly upheld random stops,5 strongly intimated that such a practice was constitutionally impermissible. Prouse therefore stands as an application of settled principles which does not raise the retroactivity issues accompanying a “sharp break” with prior doctrine.
Virtually all courts which have considered Prouse in deciding a case which was pending direct appellate review on the date of the Supreme Court’s decision6 have not hesitated to apply it, without mentioning the issue of retroactivity. Casal v. State, 375 So.2d 1077 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1979); Kennan v. State, 372 So.2d 1012 (Fla.Dist.Ct.App.1979); State v. Tucker, 286 Or. 485, 595 *564P.2d 1364 (Sup.Ct.1979); Hughes v. State, 588 S.W.2d 296 (Tenn.Sup.Ct.1979). A recent decision by the United States Supreme Court indicates, at the least, no objection to such retroactive application.7
*565II

A

Even apart from the “sharp break” test, the Prouse holding should be applied to cases such as this one which were pending direct review when Prouse was decided. As stated above, the Constitution neither prohibits nor requires such retrospective effect. See Linkletter, 381 U.S. at 629, 85 S.Ct. at 1737, 14 L.Ed.2d at 608. In the words of Justice Cardozo: “We think the federal constitution has no voice upon the subject.” Great Northern R. Co. v. Sunburst Oil & Refining Co., 287 U.S. 358, 364, 53 S.Ct. 145, 148, 77 L.Ed. 360 (1932). Without such guidance, “in each case a court must weigh and balance the competing considerations militating in favor of or against any particular form of retroactivity.” State v. Howery, 80 N.J. at 577 (Pashman, J., dissenting). This Court has identified the following criteria as relevant to such a determination:
(1) the purpose of the rule and whether it would be furthered by a retroactive application,
(2) the degree of reliance placed on the old rule by those who administered it, and
(3) the effect a retroactive application would have on the administration of justice. [State v. Howery, 80 N.J. at 569 (quoting State v. Nash, 64 N.J. 464, 471 (1974))]
See, e. g., Williams, 401 U.S. at 652, 91 S.Ct. at 1152, 28 L.Ed.2d at 394; Johnson v. New Jersey, 384 U.S. 719, 728, 86 S.Ct. 1772, 1778, 16 L.Ed.2d 882 (1966); Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. 293, 297, 87 S.Ct. 1967, 1970, 18 L.Ed.2d 1199 (1967); Linkletter, 381 U.S. at 636, 85 S.Ct. at 1741, 14 L.Ed.2d at 612. For many of the same reasons that I expressed in Howery, 80 N.J. at 575 (Pashman, J., dissenting), I am of the opinion that each of the above factors militates in favor of applying Prouse to this and all other cases in which avenues of direct review were not exhausted prior to the date of that decision.
*566By reaffirming the Howery position on retroactivity as it relates to the Fourth Amendment, the Court again ignores the fact that deterrence is not the sole purpose of the exclusionary rule. It is also designed to uphold “the imperative of judicial integrity.” Mapp v. Ohio, 367 U.S. at 659, 81 S.Ct. at 1694, 6 L.Ed.2d at 1092; Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. 206, 221 222, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 1446-1447, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669 (1960). This rationale lies at the heart of the exclusionary rule because “[a] ruling admitting evidence in a criminal trial * * * has the necessary effect of legitimizing the conduct which produced the evidence, while an application of the exclusionary rule withholds the constitutional imprimatur.” Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. at 13, 88 S.Ct. at 1875, 20 L.Ed.2d at 901. The Court today fails to appreciate that “[t]he efforts of the courts and their officials to bring the guilty to punishment, praiseworthy as they are, are not to be aided by the sacrifice of those great principles established by years of endeavor and suffering which have resulted in their embodiment in the fundamental law of the land.” Weeks v. United States, 232 U.S. 383, 393, 34 S.Ct. 341, 344, 58 L.Ed. 652 (1914).
In addition to failing to heed “the imperative of judicial integrity,” the Court also implicitly reaffirms its view in Howery that the deterrent purposes of the exclusionary rule in Prouse would not be furthered by even limited retrospective application. See Howery, 80 N.J. at 569. I continue to disagree. The Court’s position disregards the fact that the exclusionary rule focuses on general rather than specific deterrence. Specific deterrence is the punishment of an individual so that he himself will not repeat the same behavior. But “[t]he justification for the exclusion of evidence obtained by improper methods is to motivate the law enforcement profession as a whole — not the aberrant individual officer — to adopt and enforce regular procedures that will avoid the future invasion of the citizen’s constitutional rights.” Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 221, 99 S.Ct. 2248, 2261, 60 L.Ed.2d 824, 841 (1979) (Stevens, J., concur*567ring). The exclusionary rule’s “purpose is to deter — to compel respect for the constitutional guaranty in the only effectively available way — by removing the incentive to disregard it.” Elkins v. United States, 364 U.S. at 217, 80 S.Ct. at 1444, 4 L.Ed.2d at 1677. Limited retroactive effect of the rule of Prouse to cases on direct review would clearly serve this general deterrent effect.
When considering the second criterion for retroactivity — reliance on prior law — it is crucial to view that reliance from the proper perspective. Unlike the individual police officer, a law enforcement organization can be properly charged with foreseeing clearly developing constitutional principles-before they are explicitly applied as the law of a case. Responsibility for educating police in their behavior should rest on those officials with the ability to evaluate clearly developing constitutional principles. Ultimately they have the obligation in seeing that law enforcement techniques pass constitutional muster. Retrospective application of a foreshadowed rule of law would give these institutional law enforcement authorities the incentive to seek out and discontinue suspect practices. Accordingly, reliance on past law must be justifiable from the relatively objective standpoint of the law enforcement agency, not the subjective perspective of the individual officer.
[I]t is very difficult to believe that * * * the retrospectivity of a Supreme Court decision can turn upon the subjective state of a particular searching officer’s mind or upon the degree to which he may be sophisticated in reading Supreme Court opinions. If it did, the applicability of Supreme Court decisions in cases involving searches would be hopelessly conflicting and unpredictable. They are troublesome enough when we are obliged to deal only with the differing states of judges’ minds on this complex subject. [United States v. Escalante, 554 F.2d 970, 975 (9th Cir. 1977) (en banc) (Hufstedler, J., dissenting), cert. den., 434 U.S. 862, 98 S.Ct. 192, 54 L.Ed.2d 136 (1977)]
At the time of the search involved in this case — November 13, 1976 — the practice of random stops by police was indeed a highly suspect practice. Brignoni-Ponce had already forbidden such *568stops in a highly analogous situation. By the time of the search, courts in other jurisdictions had held that the Fourth Amendment prohibits the kind of stop which occurred here. See United States v. Nicholas, 448 F.2d 622 (8th Cir. 1971); State v. Ochoa, 23 Ariz.App. 510, 534 P.2d 441 (Ct.App.1975), rev’d on other grounds, 112 Ariz. 582, 544 P.2d 1097 (Sup.Ct.1976); People v. Whalen, 390 Mich. 672, 213 N.W.2d 116 (Sup.Ct.1973); People v. Ingle, 36 N.Y.2d 413, 369 N.Y.S.2d 67, 330 N.E.2d 39 (Ct.App.1975); Commonwealth v. Swanger, 453 Pa. 107, 307 A.2d 875 (Sup.Ct.1973);8 see also United States v. Cupps, 503 F.2d 277 (6th Cir. 1974). Although not yet specifically forbidden in New Jersey, the practice was surely questionable. Refusing nonretroactive application of the exclusionary rule is an open invitation to law enforcement agencies to disregard developing constitutional norms in the future. By viewing changes in search and seizure doctrine as narrowly as possible, this approach will encourage law enforcement officials to view all civil liberties in the same narrow manner. See Note, “A la Recherche du Temps Perdu: Retroactivity and the Exclusionary Rule,” 54 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 84, 106 (1979) [hereinafter “Retroactivity”]-
In contrast, granting limited retrospective effect to extensions of exclusionary principles will give due regard to the concept of general deterrence which lies at the heart of the Fourth Amendment.
*569By demonstrating that society will attach serious consequences to the violation of constitutional rights, the exclusionary rule invokes and magnifies the moral and the educative force of the law. Over the long term this may integrate some fourth amendment ideals into the value system or norms of behavior of law enforcement agencies. [Oaks, “Studying the Exclusionary Rule in Search and Seizure,” 37 U.Chi.L.Rev. 665, 756 (1970)]
To give Fourth Amendment protections their intended meaning, “[l]aw enforcement agencies must have an incentive to conform their activities to clearly emerging developments in the law before a court strikes down a practice * * *. The threat of retroactive application of at least certain newly recognized exclusionary principles appears to be the only effective means, at present, of instilling that incentive.” “Retroactivity,” supra, 54 N.Y.U.L.Rev. at 101 n. 82.
As for the third strand in the retroactivity analysis, it can readily be perceived that the effect on the administration of justice as to those few cases pending direct review would be minimal. Such limited retrospective application would certainly not inundate our lower courts with a deluge of petitions supported by “stale” evidence. See Howery, 80 N.J. at 582 583 (Pashman, J., dissenting).

B

Each of the three factors in the retroactivity analysis of Nash and Howery9 militates in favor of limited retroactive applica*570tion of the Prouse rule in this case. I also believe that a commitment to even-handed justice demands that all cases pending direct review be decided “in light of our best understanding of governing constitutional principles.” Mackey v. United States, 401 U.S. 667, 679, 91 S.Ct. 1160, 1173, 28 L.Ed.2d 404 (1971) (Harlan, J., concurring and dissenting).
There is little wisdom and no fairness in “[sjimply fishing one case from the stream of appellate review, using it as a vehicle for pronouncing new constitutional standards, and then permitting a stream of similar cases subsequently to flow by unaffected by that new rule * * * .” Id. at 679, 91 S.Ct. at 1173, 28 L.Ed.2d at 412 (Harlan, J., concurring and dissenting). This form of prospective rulemaking which the Court adopts today awards vindication of personal rights only to the winner of a race to the courthouse. This approach has no place in constitutional adjudication. “Too many irrelevant considerations, including the common cold, bear upon the rate of progress of a case through the judicial system.” Schaefer, “The Control of ‘Sunbursts’: Techniques of Prospective Overruling,” 42 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 631, 645 (1967). The defendant in this case should not be deprived of the constitutional protection by the fortuitous event *571that Prouse was decided while this case was still pending direct appellate review. The possible denial of relief from illegal imprisonment “on the basis of an arbitrary date raises a grave question of equal protection. If those whose cases were pending were reliably found guilty and hence did not deserve relief, the inequity remains that a few among them nonetheless did receive relief.” Traynor, “Quo Vadis, Prospective Overruling: A Question of Judicial Responsibility,” 28 Hast.L.J. 533, 559 (1977). There is thus a glaring inequity in affording relief to defendant Prouse, but denying relief to similarly situated defendants — including the defendant before us — who had not yet exhausted all avenues of direct review on the date that Prouse was decided.
In the recent case of State v. Czachor, 82 N.J. 392 (1980), Justice Handler, writing for the Court, implicitly recognized this basic inequity by deciding to give limited retroactive effect to the new “Allen charge” rule announced in that case. The “new” rule applied to all cases pending direct review on the date of the Czachor decision. Both the Czachor rule governing Allen-type charges and the exclusionary rule are based on “ ‘standards for criminal justice’ which are designed to protect fundamental constitutional rights.” Id. at 411 (Pashman, J., concurring). If concerns for fairness and judicial integrity moved the Court to require that the rule in Czachor be given limited retroactive effect, then I fail to understand why those concerns do not operate in this case.10
*572There are other compelling justifications for applying “new” constitutional rules to cases pending direct review. As Justice Harlan noted:
Refusal to apply new constitutional rules to all cases arising on direct review may well substantially deter those whose financial resources are barely sufficient to withstand the costs of litigating to this Court, or attorneys who are willing to make sacrifices to perform their professional obligation in its broadest sense, from asserting rights bottomed on constitutional interpretations different from those currently prevailing in this Court. More importantly, it tends to cut this Court loose from the force of precedent, allowing us to restructure artificially those expectations legitimately created by extant law and thereby mitigate the practical force of stare decisis, * * * a force which ought properly to bear on the judicial resolution of any legal problem. * * *
* * * I continue to believe that a proper perception of our duties as a court of law, charged with applying the Constitution to resolve every legal dispute within our jurisdiction on direct review, mandates that we apply the law as it is at the time, not as it once was. [Mackey v. United States, 401 U.S. at 680-681, 91 S.Ct. at 1174 (Harlan, J., concurring and dissenting) (citations omitted)]
Not only is applying the law “as it is” compelled by “the imperative of judicial integrity,” but anything else is inconsistent with simple justice.
Ill
Because “State Constitutions * * * are a font of individual liberties, their protections often extending beyond those required by the [United States] Supreme Court’s interpretation of federal law,” Brennan, “State Constitutions and the Protection of Individual Rights,” 90 Harv.L.Rev. 489, 491 (1977); see, e. g., State v. Baker, 81 N.J. 99, 112 (1979); Oakwood at Madison Inc. v. Tp. of Madison, 72 N.J. 481, 495 n. 3 (1977); State v. Johnson, 68 N.J. 349, 353 (1975), the Court should have at least discussed the issue of random police stops under our State Constitution as well as under the Fourth Amendment. I would hold that random police stops are forbidden by N.J.Const. (1947), Art. I, *573par. 7, at least to the extent they are forbidden under the Fourth Amendment as interpreted in Prouse, and would give limited effect to this new ruling.
IV
I believe that the only approach to retroactivity which comports with the judicial function is to apply our best understanding of the law to all cases which come before us. This requires that we apply “new” constitutional decisions in the exclusionary rule context to all eases pending direct review on the date when the “new” rule is announced. As Justice Harlan stated:
If we do not resolve all cases before us on direct review in light of our best understanding of governing constitutional principles, it is difficult to see why we should so adjudicate any case at all. * * * In truth, the Court’s assertion of power to disregard current law in adjudicating cases before us that have not already run the full course of appellate review, is quite simply an assertion that our constitutional function is not one of adjudication but in effect of legislation. We apply and definitively interpret the Constitution, under this view of our role, not because we are bound to, but only because we occasionally deem it appropriate, useful, or wise. That sort of choice may permissibly be made by a legislature or a council of revision, but not by a court of law. [Mackey v. United States, 401 U.S. at 679, 91 S.Ct. at 1173, 28 L.Ed.2d at 413 (Harlan, J., concurring and dissenting)]
Even if a rule forbidding random stops under N.J.Const. (1947), Art. I, par. 7, which should have been announced today, is not given limited retroactive effect, that State constitutional rule should nonetheless apply to this case. This would be so because even “new” constitutional rules are generally applied to the case in which that rule is first announced. See Stovall v. Denno, 388 U.S. at 301, 87 S.Ct. at 1972, 18 L.Ed.2d at 1206.
For the foregoing reasons, I believe that the judgment of the Appellate Division, reversing the conviction, should be affirmed.
*574Chief Justice WILENTZ and Justice SULLIVAN join in this dissenting opinion.
For reversal and remandment — Justices CLIFFORD, SCHREIBER, HANDLER and POLLOCK — 4.
For affirmance — Chief Justice WILENTZ and Justices SULLIVAN and PASHMAN — 3.

 Another threshold test considers whether the integrity of the factfinding process is at stake. “Where the major purpose of new constitutional doctrine is to overcome an aspect of the criminal trial that substantially impairs its truth-finding function and so raises serious questions about the accuracy of guilty verdicts in past trials, the new rule has been given complete retroactive effect.” Williams v. United States, 401 U.S. 646, 653, 91 S.Ct. 1148, 1152, 28 L.Ed.2d 388 (1971). See, e. g., Arsenault v. Massachusetts, 393 U.S. 5, 89 S.Ct. 35, 21, L.Ed.2d 5 (1968) (retroactive effect given to the right to counsel); Roberts v. Russell, 392 U.S. 293, 88 S.Ct. 1921, 20 L.Ed.2d 1100 (1968) (retroactive effect given to the rule in Bruton v. United States, 391 U.S. 123, 88 S.Ct. 1620, 20 L.Ed.2d 476 (1968), which held that admission of co-defendant’s extrajudicial confession implicating defendant at a joint trial violated defendant’s right of confrontation); Reck v. Pate, 367 U.S. 433, 81 S.Ct. 1541, 6 L.Ed.2d 948 (1961) (current standards of voluntariness applied retroactively to invalidate appellant’s 1936 confession). The United States Supreme Court has also given complete retrospective effect to its recent interpretations of the Double Jeopardy Clause. Robinson v. Neil, 409 U.S. 505, 93 S.Ct. 876, 35 L.Ed.2d 29 (1973).

Prior to Linkletter, the Court had generally held that new constitutional rulings be given total retroactive effect. See generally Robinson v. Neil, 409 U.S. at 507, 93 S.Ct. at 877, 35 L.Ed.2d at 32; Linkletter v. Walker, 381 U.S. at 628 n. 13, 629, 85 S.Ct. at 1737 n. 13, 14 L.Ed.2d at 608 n. 13.

 A new variation on the traditional conception favoring retrospective application has been advanced by Professor Paul Mishkin:
Actually, while the Blackstonian conception is not entirely valid, neither is it wholly wrong. For it is certainly true that courts in general handle the vast bulk of cases by application of preexisting law; indeed, even when “new law” must be made, it is often in fact a matter of the court articulating particular clear implications of values so generally shared in the society that the process might well be characterized as declaring a preexisting law. Moreover, this must inevitably be so. For it is the basic role of courts to decide disputes after they have arisen. That function requires that judicial decisions operate (at least ordinarily) with retroactive effect. In turn, unless those decisions (at least ordinarily) reflect preexisting rules or values, such retroactivity would be intolerable. [Mishkin, “The Supreme Court 1964 Term — Foreword: The High Court, The Great Writ, and Due Process of Time and Law,” 79 Harv.L.Rev. 56, 60 (1965) (footnotes omitted)]

The majority also relies on N.J.S.A. 39:3-29 as additional authority for its view of prior law regarding investigatory stops of motor vehicles. Of course, federal constitutional decisions raise doubts concerning State statutes as well as caselaw. But it is even more telling to note that the statute says nothing about when a peace officer may request a driver’s license. All it does state is that a motorist must present a license and other papers when the officer demands them. It does not provide when the officer may make a legitimate demand. That the statute was cited in State v. Gray, 59 N.J. at 567, does not alter the validity of this observation.

The majority’s assertion that Prouse effected a “radical departure" from “long-standing legal authority” appears to rest on dicta in Gray and Kabayama. While the Appellate Division’s opinion in Kabayama mentioned the practice of randomly stopping single vehicles, 98 N.J.Super. at 88, the only issue before the court was whether “the practice of establishing roadblocks by the police for license and * * * registration checks” constitutes an unconstitutional invasion of privacy. Id. at 87. That Prouse would not disturb the result reached in Kabayama is clear from the Supreme Court’s express statement that roadblock-type stops involving less than unbridled police discretion are not unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment. See 440 U.S. at 663, 99 S.Ct. at 1401, 59 L.Ed.2d at 673; id. at 663-664, 99 S.Ct. at 1401, 59 L.Ed.2d at 673-674 (Blackmun and Powell, JJ., concurring). Nor is it clear that an application of Prouse would invalidate the initial vehicle stop in Gray. The issue in Gray was whether the police had probable cause to search a manila envelope and the trunk of the vehicle after the driver failed to produce a license or registration card and engaged in other furtive behavior. 59 N.J. at 568. In commenting on the circumstances which preceded the initial stop, Justice Proctor cited Kabayama, but rested the validity of the seizure on the clear “aura of suspicion surrounding [Gray’s] actions and his use of the automobile on the day in question.” id. at 567. This is consistent with Prouse which requires only that the vehicle stop be based on articulable and reasonable suspicion that the vehicle or an occupant is subject to seizure for violation of law. 440 U.S. at 663, 99 S.Ct. at 1401, 59 L.Ed.2d at 673.

Prouse was decided on March 27, 1979.

In State v. Kretchmar, 201 Neb. 308, 267 N.W.2d 740 (Sup.Ct.1978), the Nebraska Supreme Court upheld a conviction for possession of marijuana discovered during a random stop. Subsequent to the date of the decision in Prouse, the Court granted certiorari, vacated the judgment of the Nebraska Supreme Court and remanded the case for further consideration in light of Prouse. 440 U.S. 978, 99 S.Ct. 1783, 60 L.Ed.2d 237 (1979). The Nebraska Supreme Court withdrew its former opinion, found Prouse to be applicable— again, without mention of retroactivity — and remanded to the trial court with instructions to dismiss. 203 Neb. 663, 280 N.W.2d 46 (Sup.Ct.1979). Although one can only speculate as to the meaning of the United States Supreme Court’s actions in Kretchmar, I believe, as did the Nebraska Supreme Court, that those actions signal the fact that Prouse need not be limited to prospective effect only.
Kretchmar is highly analogous to prior actions by the Supreme Court involving United States v. Chadwick, 433 U.S. 1, 97 S.Ct. 2476, 53 L.Ed.2d 538 (1977), where the Court held that a search warrant is required before police may open a locked footlocker which they lawfully seized at the time of the arrest of its owner, when there was probable cause to believe it contained contraband. In June 1977 the Supreme Court vacated a judgment of the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, involving a 1974 briefcase search, 543 F.2d 59 (8th Cir. 1976), and remanded for further consideration in light of Chadwick. Schleis v. United States, 433 U.S. 905, 97 S.Ct. 2968, 53 L.Ed.2d 1089 (1977). On remand en banc, the Eighth Circuit held that Chadwick was to be accorded retrospective effect because “Chadwick announces no new constitutional doctrine, nor does it broaden any existing exclusionary rule.” United States v. Schleis, 582 F.2d 1166, 1174 (8th Cir. 1978) (en banc). The court specifically noted that if the Supreme Court had not intended Chadwick to be applied retroactively, there would have been no reason for a remand. Id. at 1173 n. 6; see also People v. Minjares, 24 Cal.3d 410, 153 Cal.Rptr. 224, 228-230, 591 P.2d 514, 519-520 n. 6 (Sup.Ct.1979), cert. den., 444 U.S. 887, 100 S.Ct. 181, 62 L.Ed.2d 117 (1979).

Only two courts permitted arbitrary investigatory stops after BrignoniPonce. In one case, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reconsider a 1972 decision in the light of developments elsewhere. United States v. Jenkins, 528 F.2d 713, 714 (10th Cir. 1975). The other decisions came from the Nebraska Supreme Court, State v. Shepardson, 194 Neb. 673, 235 N.W.2d 218 (Sup.Ct.1975); State v. Holmberg, 194 Neb. 337, 231 N.W.2d 672 (Sup.Ct.1975), and were later effectively repudiated by that court in Kretchmar, supra at 564 n. 7.

The three-part test itself has not been found to be an entirely satisfactory solution. Former Chief Justice Traynor of the California Supreme Court has stated that the test’s
inadequacy lies mainly in the failure to weigh against the [factors embodied in the three-part test] the hardship and inequity suffered by those who are denied the benefit of the new rule and compelled to bear the burden on what is now admittedly recognized as an unjust rule. [Traynor, “Quo Vadis, Prospective Overruling: A Question of Judicial Responsibility,” 28 Hast.L.J. 533, 561 (1977)]
To determine whether there should be only prospective application of a new rule, Chief Justice Traynor would require
*570clear demonstrations that a precedent must be overruled, that the new rule is the best of all possible replacements, and that the hardship on a party who has relied on the old rule outweighs the hardship on the party denied the benefit of the new rule. Since there are few cases where such rigorous demonstrations can be made, there should be few occasions when prospective overruling can justifiably displace the normal retroactive application of an overruling decision. [Id. at 561-562]
Similarly, Justice Harlan has maintained that the inquiry into the nature, purposes and scope of a particular constitutional rule is essential to determining whether that is the correct substantive rule of law.
That inquiry is, however, quite simply irrelevant in deciding, once a rule has been adopted as part of our legal fabric, which cases then pending in this Court should be governed by it. [Mackey v. United States, 401 U.S. 667, 681, 91 S.Ct. 1160, 1174, 28 L.Ed.2d 404 (1971) (Harlan, J., concurring and dissenting)]

Czachor is distinguishable from the exclusionary rule setting because that case places the factual accuracy of past jury verdicts in question. This difference, however, “would not mandate that only prospective effect be given to exclusionary rule decisions. If anything, it might require giving complete retroactive effect to cases such as [Czachor]." State v. Czachor, 82 N.J. at 412 (Pashman, J., concurring); see also id. at 411.