Court Opinion

ID: 9734037
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:23:28.245169+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:46:30.045279
License: Public Domain

ZAPPALA, Justice,
concurring.
While I agree with the result reached today by the Court, I disagree with its constitutional analysis and thus write separately to briefly explain my reasoning.
In Commonwealth v. Sell, 504 Pa. 46, 470 A.2d 457 (1983), we held that the protections of Art. I, § 8 of our State Constitution provide a greater protection than that apparently afforded by the Fourth amendment of the United States Constitution. While I agree with the Court that the “stopping of an automobile and the detention of its occupants is a seizure subject to constitutional restraints.”, (at p. 1038) I disagree with the Court’s discussion of Commonwealth v. Johnston, 515 Pa. 454, 530 A.2d 74 (1987) and its reliance upon United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, 428 U.S. 543, 96 S.Ct. 3074, 49 L.Ed.2d 1116 (1976).
In Johnston, we upheld a search of a hallway by trained canine dogs. In doing so, we explicitly disavowed the United States Supreme Court decision of United States v. Place, 462 U.S. 696, 103 S.Ct. 2637, 77 L.Ed.2d 110 (1983), and in fact adopted the dissent of Justice Brennan. The distinction in these two views is critical and relevant to the present case. In Place, the majority applied a balancing test between the individual and governmental interests to be protected in determining whether an unreasonable search had occurred, while the dissenters objected to this approach arguing that the balancing test was only appropri*299ate in a Terry situation.1 We then concluded that the actions by the canine dogs were a search not susceptible to a balancing review but rather to a determination of probable cause. Since the police had articulable facts upon which to base their belief that drugs were present, Art. I, § 8 was not violated.
Since the Opinion Announcing the Judgment of the Court appears to be adopting the majority view in Place and justifies the D.U.I. roadblock on the basis of the balancing test, I cannot agree. Our Constitution has already set forth the standard to be applied in reviewing a search and/or seizure. Art. I, § 8 clearly states that no search or seizure may be conducted “without probable cause.” We cannot pay lip service to this provision, a constitutional precept for over two-hundred years, in order to eradicate a deplorable problem of our current society (i.e. drunk driving). We are not confronted here with two competing constitutional rights which would require a balancing review. To uphold the constitutionality of the use of roadblocks to discover whether a driver is operating his vehicle under the influence of alcohol would in essence destroy constitutionally guaranteed protections to effect a solution to a social problem.
I must object as well to the attempt to create what is perceived to be a constitutionally sound legislative scheme for establishing roadblocks. This effort appears to be a reflexive response to the public concern over the social ill of drunken driving. However, the decision that the roadblocks are invalid because they lack statutory authority renders its discussion of the constitutional implications of the enactment of any legislative scheme an advisory opinion. Moreover, the judiciary should not seek to respond to the overwhelming sense of urgency engendered by society’s attempt to control this problem. While basking in the plaudits of society, after taking such action the Court may soon realize it has diminished the rights our society had sought to give its greatest protection — that of a constitutional guarantee.
*300Even under Commonwealth v. Hicks, 434 Pa. 153, 253 A.2d 276 (1969), in which we adopted the Terry exception to probable cause for a search and/or seizure, we required a reasonable suspicion that a crime was in process. Because of the restricted intrusion allowed under Terry, the United States Supreme Court in interpreting the Fourth amendment has permitted a stop based not upon probable cause but upon a reasonable suspicion. The balancing test required under Terry which today is mistakenly applied to the present appeal, involves a weighing of the intrusion applied after a determination of a reasonable suspicion. Now my brethren want to apply this balancing test to avoid a requirement of probable cause even though it has conceded that a roadblock is in fact a seizure. The result is that our personal liberties will be further restricted on a lower standard than that required under Terry, i.e. speculation. My brethren then appear to justify the eradication of the probable cause requirement by the difficulty in enforcing drunk driving laws. As Justice Brennan said in his dissent in United States v. Martinez-Fuerte, supra,
There is no principle in the jurisprudence of fundamental rights which permits constitutional limitations to be dispensed with merely because they cannot be conveniently satisfied. Dispensing with reasonable suspicion as a prerequisite to stopping and inspecting motorists because the inconvenience of such a requirement would make it impossible to identify a given car as a possible carrier of aliens is no more justifiable than dispensing with probable cause as prerequisite to the search of an individual because the inconvenience of such a requirement would make it impossible to identify a given person in a high crime area as a possible carrier of a concealed weapon.
428 U.S. at 575-76, 96 S.Ct. at 3091, 49 L.Ed.2d at 1138-39. Thus, while the required end is admirable, the means employed does not justify that end.
I also find the reliance upon United States v. MartinezFuerte, supra unpersuasive. In Martinez-Fuerte, the United States Supreme Court accepted permanent border*301line checks as non-violative of the Fourth amendment. Surely no one can reasonably equate the protections of our borders from illegal aliens with the removal of drunk drivers off our highways. The intent and purpose of each search is quite different. In Martinez-Fuerte, the purpose of the search was to keep illegal aliens out of the country, not for the purpose of detecting criminal activity, while in the present case, the intent of the search was to discover criminal activity, i.e. drunken drivers. Therefore, the administrative search in Martinez-Fuerte was valid subject to reasonable implementation.
Since the Opinion Announcing the Judgment of the Court concedes that the stopping of vehicles at a roadblock is a seizure subject to constitutional restraints, I see no logical reason for ignoring our well-reasoned body of jurisprudence in the face of a societal illness. Our constitution requires a showing of probable cause before a search or seizure occurs. There existing no articulable facts of the commission of a crime upon which these D.U.I. roadblocks were based, I find them repugnant to our Constitution. Accordingly, I would affirm the Superior Court in both Commonwealth v. Dannaker and Commonwealth v. Tarbert.

. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).