Court Opinion

ID: 9734038
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:23:28.249741+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:45.235721
License: Public Domain

PAPADAKOS, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the result reached by Mr. Chief Justice Nix that the systematic stop in this case, pursuant to legislative authority granted the police in the 1983 statute, was unlawful because the police failed to comply with the mandate of the statutory authority. The matter should rest there.
Unfortunately, the majority includes an extended discussion of constitutional issues which are unnecessary for the holding in this case. The opinion discusses at length and finds constitutional justification for non-discriminatory, systematic roadblocks by the police under well-defined parameters. With this conclusion, I can agree. But not in the context of this case. We have too often stated that when a case raises constitutional and non-constitutional issues, we should not reach constitutional issues if the case can proper*302ly be decided on non-constitutional grounds. Krenzelak v. Krenzelak, 503 Pa. 373, 469 A.2d 987 (1983); Ballou v. State Ethics Commission, 496 Pa. 127, 436 A.2d 186 (1981); Richards v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, 491 Pa. 162, 420 A.2d 391 (1980); Estate of Grossman, 486 Pa. 460, 406 A.2d 726 (1979); Commonwealth v. Mason, 483 Pa. 409, 397 A.2d 408 (1979); Mt. Lebanon v. County Board of Elections, 470 Pa. 317, 368 A.2d 648 (1977).
Because of the inclusion of this obiter dictum, I am constrained to concur in the result.