Court Opinion

ID: 9724445
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 10:56:45.09316+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:25:00.057175
License: Public Domain

HENDERSON, Justice
(dissenting).
I join the dissent of Justice Sabers.
In doing so, it is noted that the dissent is supported by the majority viewpoint in the United States. State v. Talbot, 792 P.2d 489 (Utah 1990). Via the majority opinion, South Dakota adopts the minority viewpoint.
In this factual scenario, Thill made a lawful left hand turn. Arresting officer Persing testified that he was 150 yards from Thill’s vehicle when it made a left hand turn. There is no doubt — no question at all — that Persing’s only reason for later pursuing, stopping, and seizing the Thill vehicle was the fact that Thill turned before going through the roadblock. It is undisputed that Thill demonstrated no criminal behavior, no erratic driving behavior, no moving violations as he proceeded to the roadblock or away from it.
Therefore, there was absolutely no specific and articulable suspicion of a violation before the stop. State v. Anderson, 331 N.W.2d 568 (S.D.1983). By this decision, South Dakota adopts the rule that the act of avoiding a roadblock — by itself — creates an articulable suspicion of some type of criminal activity.1 In this train of reasoning, the majority opinion is in error on both of its propositions, the one of fact, the other of constitutional law, and its conclusion withers.
Under questioning at oral argument by this writer, it was admitted by the Assistant Attorney General that (a) there is no statute in this state forbidding the avoidance of a roadblock and (b) Thill never got into the lane of cones which channeled the traffic to Officer Persing’s roadblock.
We have, before us, another erosion of the requirement of only minimal intrusion. Minimal intrusion is employed as a legal theory to justify the very existence of a roadblock. I hearken unto this proposition: the United States Supreme Court has authorized motorist checkpoints upon the basis that there is a minimal intrusion on motorists and minimal discretion of officers. Michigan v. Sitz, 496 U.S. -, 110 S.Ct. 2481, 110 L.Ed.2d 412 (1990). It appears to me that, in South Dakota, we will permit maximum intrusions upon motorists and grant maximum discretion to officers.
*89It is extremely difficult to understand the nature and consequences of statism (state exalted; rights of people demoted) in its myriad disguises. Here, it is not difficult to see: statism simply prevails as a judicial philosophy. Everything we as humans think, everything we do, everything we write, everything we decide, every principle we advance is founded upon a philosophical concept. This underlying truth holds fast not only in the field of medicine, social and political systems, but also within the search for justice. These fields are anything but exact sciences.
All of us, in our exercise of free will, make a decision as to that which we honestly believe is the apparent truth and is, to us, the most appealing at the moment. We do it or say it or write it within our own perception of ethics and the Law. Unquestionably, as decades and time rolls by, each individual arrives at a decision by what truths, as he sees truth, he will fasten upon.
I would attach myself to the spirit of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. It has prescribed a security which, by the action of this Court today, would be “seriously circumscribed,” a phrase set forth in Delaware v. Prouse, a case cited by Justice Sabers. Essentially, the Fourth Amendment is a limitation on governmental power — a control, if you will. Our government is one of enumerated powers. Those powers vested in the government are granted by the people through expressions in the Constitution. When you start hemming in that control, the power of the State is extended in a manner which the people did not intend. In this case, my brothers, in a sense, are putting a control on the control.
State maintains Thill’s turn was “evasive.” Thus, it concludes there exists “articulable suspicion.” Such rationale has been expressly rejected in Murphy v. Commonwealth, 384 S.E.2d 125, 128 (1989); Pooler v. Motor Vehicles Division, 88 Or. App. 475, 746 P.2d 716 (1987), aff’d., 306 Or. 47, 755 P.2d 701 (1988). Both cases are right on point, both holding that a legal turn (the identical situation at hand) does not constitute a suspicion of criminal activity-
Generations come and go. So do civilizations. The pillars of liberty (to include stepping into and driving an automobile) rise and fall depending upon vigilance. A great civilization fell — the Roman Empire. Why? What happened to the truths, as men perceived them? 2
A “hunch”, we decide today, is enough to stop and seize an automobile. This slender reed is too tenuous for my constitutional application. Objectivity flies away. And with it, unfortunately, so do the protections which the Fourth Amendment grants: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures . . ."

. There is no evidence that he actually avoided the roadblock. He made a left turn some 450 feet away from it.

. An early patriot, Thomas Paine, wrote: "Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” Freedom isn’t free. And therein lie the obligation of men to preserve it.