COURT TO RULE ON POLICE USE OF ROADBLOCKS

Subjecting Cars To Hunts For Illegal Drugs At Issue

WASHINGTON---The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday in a case that
will decide whether police can set up roadblocks and subject cars to
inspection by drug-sniffing dogs without a warrant.

The case, Indianapolis v. Edmond, calls on the court to balance society's
interest in promoting innovative police tactics in the war on drugs against
the Constitution's guarantee of individual freedom from unreasonable
detention by law enforcement authorities.

For about three months in 1998, Indianapolis police set up a series of
highway checkpoints in high-crime areas, where they stopped cars and
examined the drivers' licenses while drug-detecting dogs circled the
stopped vehicles. There were 1,161 such stops, resulting in 104 arrests, 55
of them on drug charges.

The city considered the program a major success. But James Edmond and
Joelle Palmer, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, filed suit,
alleging that the roadblocks violated the Fourth Amendment prohibition
against unreasonable searches and seizures.

In U.S. District Court, the city defeated the plaintiffs' bid for an
injunction halting the roadblock program, but the Chicago-based 7th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision, 2 to 1.