Originally Posted by
RichardKenner
(5) It is not clear that "making a u turn in front of a checkpoint" is probable cause or reasonable suspicion of anything. The case that establishes the legality of DUI checkpoints (Michigan Department of State v. Sitz, 496 US 444) seems to imply the opposite. Certainly, no probable cause or reasonable suspicion can legally follow from somebody exercising their 5th or 5th Amendment rights.
Completely off topic, but the growing incidence of "no refusal" DWI (at least in Texas) is quite disturbing in this regard. The idea that a judge will rubber stamp a "warrant" - based on nothing more than the recommendation of a traffic cop - to violate your your body and draw blood against against your will is extremely disturbing to me and seems to pervert the entire premise of the 4th Amendment in order to violate an individual's 5th Amendment rights.
Judges are supposed to be neutral arbiters of the law - i.e. to neutrally evaluate the evidence that a search warrant is necessary - and instead they have very much become nothing more than defenders of the existing power structure and status quo. Politicians and prosecutors like to say that they're "tough on crime" and the abuse of DWI laws in this regard is out of control.