Court Opinion

ID: 9735668
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 18:27:12.106017+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:27:00.794507
License: Public Domain

Nolan, J.
(dissenting). I dissent. Many of the judge’s findings on factors which are crucial to a proper roadblock are unsupported by the evidence. I believe that the Commonwealth satisfied its burden of establishing the lawfulness of the roadblock in this case. Commonwealth v. Antobenedetto, 366 Mass. 51, 57 (1974).
If illegal alien traffic and smuggling are sufficiently serious public problems to justify the Border Patrol in stopping vehicles for brief questioning of their occupants at a specific checkpoint despite the absence of articulable facts to justify the stopping of a motor vehicle (see United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543 [1976]), the “carnage caused by drunk drivers” (South Dakota v. Neville, 459 U.S. 553, 558 [1983]) is even more serious and widespread.
The guidelines which the court has delineated today appear to have been met in this case. There was testimony that the stopping of motor vehicles was not arbitrary, all vehicles were stopped, and that hazard and inconvenience to motorists were at a minimum. There were visible signs of the roadblock and the police did not use their own discretion as to the particular vehicle to be stopped.
On balance, the inoffensive intrusion of a systematic stopping of all vehicles at a fixed point is a small price to pay for efforts to reduce the frightening slaughter on our highways caused by driving under the influence of liquor.