Indeed, Hartland VT (just under 100 miles as the crow flies from the CA border) has a CBP checkpoint on I-91, but it's seldomly staffed these days.

When it is staffed, it's not too unusual for them to pull random people over on US-5, which parallels I-91.

These sorts of checkpoints bother me (I have to deal with the checkpoints near Yuma, AZ as well). Nothing like being a US Citizen, driving between two points in my own country, and have some guy stop me, conduct vehicle searches, and ask detailed questions about who I am and where I'm going.

Maybe they're just being cautious. I mean, during the U.S. Civil War Confederate forces operating from Canada raided Vermont. It could happen again, you know.

Yup. Canada. The Northern Menace!

The last time I read the Constitution, the specific number 100 is not identified in any way. The numerical descriptor "hundred" is, in fact, listed three times when written out as a part of a year:

1. Article 1, Section 9
2. Article 5
3. Article 7

However, to be honest, I just posted a fracking link; I did not ARGUE one way or the other on the position of the ACLU, merely provided a reference point for the poster immediately prior to my post.

Take the information and do what you want with it. Obviously, our esteemed elected asshats on the Capitol Toilet decided to wipe their collective backsides with the Constitution when they passed the enabling legislation for the 100 mile limit. The only legislation that I have been able to find says that DHS may inspect within a "reasonable" distance from the border. DHS, by their own statements, feels that 100 miles is reasonable, today. Who is to say what those ........s are going to say tomorrow, next month or next year.

This is, essentially, the same argument I was making earlier. Martinez-Fuerte was a grave mistake that gave them an inch. They promptly took 100 miles.

This is why I am placing the blame directly on SCOTUS. Will they ever learn the "inch - mile" lesson?

CBP should do stops on DC streets in front of the Capitol and White House (within 100 miles of the border). "Obama: that sounds foreign. Can you prove you're a US citizen?"

Hell, why stop on the streets. Do it at every entrance to the Capitol building, and all of the House/Senate office buildings. Hell, CBP/BP claims that the protections guaranteed under the Bill of Rights are "relaxed" in relation to border security issues, so it shouldn't matter to them that this method would unduly impact the Right to Petition for the Redress of Grievances.

CBP is not that stupid. They know that doing something like this will put an end to their power trip very quickly.

This is excatly the problem I have with Congresscritters: They have no idea what the rest of us have to deal with.

It's funny because he can't.

A nuclear weapon is of zero value in CQB.

goon (gn)
n. Slang
1. A thug hired to intimidate or harm opponents.
2. A stupid or oafish person.

Mutually exclusive. Professionals in the US enforcing the law aren't goons. They would become goons if they step out and dole out street justice.

They shouldn't be conducing vehicle searches, not without consent or PC.

According to the last CBP guy that checked my car, the fact that I was merely driving south (away from the border, as is everyone at the checkpoint) was probable cause.

For that matter, I got delayed once by 45 minutes since I refused to tell them where I was going other than "south", since, as far as I was concerned, once I had showed them my valid US passport there was no immigration reason for them to question or detain me.

What he said is wrong. He may have had other cause and didn't want to tell you what it was (he's not under any obligation to do so to you, only a judge). But if that was his "real" cause, then he's wrong, unless he's at a land border. At a checkpoint, not correct.

"That's all the authority I need."l

Apparently some BP agent was stupid enough to stop Sen. Leahy's vehicle with US Senate plates. He also must have been functionally retarded, as he ordered the senator out of the vehicle. I wonder which shopping mall the agent works at now.

In the movie The Dark Knight, Leahy's character says, "We won't be intimidated by thugs!" If only he said that during his detention.