''City of Indianapolis v. Edmond'', 531 U.S. 32 (2000), was a

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

case in which the Court held, 6–3, that police may not conduct vehicle searches, specifically ones involving drug-sniffing police dogs, at a checkpoint or roadblock without

reasonable suspicion Reasonable suspicion is a legal standard of proof in United States law that is less than probable cause, the legal standard for arrests and warrants, but more than an "inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or 'hunch; it must be based on "specif ...

. In the case, the

Indianapolis Police Department The Indianapolis Police Department (IPD) (September 1, 1854 – December 31, 2006) was the principal law enforcement agency of Indianapolis, Indiana, under the jurisdiction of the Mayor of Indianapolis and Director of Public Safety. Prior to ...

was conducting warrantless searches of vehicles, without individualized suspicion, for the purpose of "general crime control". Previous Supreme Court decisions had given the police power to create roadblocks for the purposes of border security ('' United States v. Martinez-Fuerte'') and removing drunk drivers from the road ('' Police v. Sitz''), but in this decision, the Court limited police power, holding that the search can only occur if it was designed to serve special needs, beyond the normal need for law enforcement.

Background

In August 1998, the

set up six roadblocks on roads and highways in and out of the city of Indianapolis in an effort to disrupt unlawful

trafficking Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. There are various ...

of illegal narcotics. The location of these roadblocks were chosen weeks in advance based on an area's crime rate and the road's general traffic flow. On written directions from the chief of police, one officer was to approach each stopped vehicle and conduct an "open-view" search of the vehicle, while another walked a narcotics-sniffing dog around the vehicle. If the dog alerted to the presence of narcotics, the vehicle would be searched by the police. A predetermined number of vehicles were stopped at each roadblock, and each stop was to take five minutes or less. Checkpoints were operated during daylight hours, and marked with lighted signs that read, "NARCOTICS CHECKPOINT __ MILE AHEAD, NARCOTICS K-9 IN USE, BE PREPARED TO STOP." Between August and November, the police stopped 1,161 motorists, and arrested 104, of which 55 were charged with drug-related crimes. James Edmond and Joell Palmer were both stopped at one of these checkpoints, and filed a

class action lawsuit A class action, also known as a class-action lawsuit, class suit, or representative action, is a type of lawsuit where one of the parties is a group of people who are represented collectively by a member or members of that group. The class actio ...

against the city, representing "any and all persons driving vehicles who have been stopped ..at the drug interdiction roadblocks maintained by the City of Indianapolis."''Goldsmith,'' 38

F. Supp. 2d The ''Federal Supplement'' ( is a case law reporter published by West Publishing in the United States that includes select opinions of the United States district courts since 1932, and is part of the National Reporter System. Although the ''F ...

( S.D. Ind. 1998) at 1020.

Opinion of the Court

The opinion was delivered by Justice O'Connor, joined by Justices Stevens, Kennedy, Souter, Ginsburg, and Breyer. Chief Justice Rehnquist delivered a dissenting opinion, in which Justice Thomas joined, and

Justice Scalia Antonin Gregory Scalia (; March 11, 1936 – February 13, 2016) was an American jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1986 until his death in 2016. He was described as the intellectua ...

joined as to part I. Justice Thomas also filed a separate dissent.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:City Of Indianapolis V. Edmond United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court United States Fourth Amendment case law Government of Indianapolis Federal court cases involving Indiana 2000 in United States case law American Civil Liberties Union litigation Detection dogs

Background

Opinion of the Court

See also

References

External links