Motorcyclists Across The Country Anxiously Await Court Decision On Constitutionality Of New York's Motorcycle Checkpoint Program
Motorcyclists across the nation are awaiting a decision from the
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York which
they hope will declare New York's "motorcycle only" roadway
checkpoints to be unconstitutional. The case Wagner et al. v. The
County of Schenectady, et al. could end up in the United States
Supreme Court. The checkpoints, which target well-known motorcycle
events, force motorcyclists traveling to and from those events to
leave the roadway, regardless of any wrongdoing, and have their
vehicles and equipment inspected for safety and non-safety
equipment violations and stolen VIN numbers. Motorcyclists have
been detained as long as 45 minutes in makeshift stockades while
undergoing the inspections. The National Highway Transportation
Safety Administration recently began Federal funding for motorcycle
checkpoints nationwide in order to assess their effectiveness
despite objections raised by members of Congress.
The New York lawsuit is the first to challenge the
constitutionality of motorcycle checkpoints. The plaintiffs are
being represented by Proner & Proner, a plaintiffs personal injury
law firm with a long history of doing "pro bono" legal work on
behalf of motorcyclists. The Proner firm commenced the lawsuit on
behalf of four motorcyclists who were detained at two separate
checkpoints.
The checkpoints are funded by a grant from the New York Governor's
Traffic Safety Committee and the troopers who work them are paid
overtime. Although the stated purpose of the checkpoints is to
promote safety, the majority of the more than a thousand tickets
which were issued during the first year of the checkpoints had
nothing to do with safety and instead focused on non-safety
violations such as loud pipes. The written guidelines for the
checkpoints specifically state that one of the purposes of the
checkpoints is to look for stolen and forged VINs and the police
readily admit that they often have undercover members of their gang
and auto theft units working the checkpoints looking for signs of
criminal activity.
The Supreme Court of the United States has repeatedly made it clear
that any roadway checkpoint whose primary purpose is general crime
control constitutes an unreasonable search and seizure under the
Fourth Amendment and is presumptively unconstitutional.
Notwithstanding that fact, the progress reports which the police
prepared on the checkpoints specifically state that the grant funds
are used "for overtime for intelligence gathering and the
subsequent criminal and traffic enforcement." The police admit that
the checkpoints, which focus only on equipment violations and
forged and stolen VINs, do not address any of the major causes of
motorcycle accidents such as reckless driving, driver
inattentiveness and alcohol impairment.
Lawyers for the Plaintiff Riders and Defendant State Police are
both seeking summary judgment on the Fourth Amendment claims. The
future of motorcyclists' rights hangs in the balance.