“The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

In other words, before a policeman can stop you and search you, or your car, he must have a warrant issued by a judge, and to get the warrant he must swear that he has probable cause to suspect that you have committed a crime. And the warrant has to describe the place to be searched and also just what the cop is looking for.

We have a principle in the US that by applying for a driver’s license you are giving ‘implied consent’ that if a cop suspects you are drunk he may test you. But he still has to have some reason to suspect you are drunk! In this case the cop has no reason to suspect that you’re drunk, he’s just stopping people at random and searching their car, which is unconstitutional.

Also, often police will set up these checkpoints in minority neighborhoods or poor neighborhoods, just assuming that poor or minority people are more likely to be drunk drivers or have drugs. This violates the principle of equal protection under the law, which is part of 14th amendment (though that isn’t in the Bill of Rights).

In a nutshell, this is saying that in matters that where there are not federal legislature about a matter, the individual states or the people can pass laws that apply only to the states or people. This is true with your case since is talking about something that is going to be done only in Michigan.

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Searching someone’s car w/o “probable cause” (reasonable suspicion of finding something to indicate he broke the law) is prohibited.

IF you go through a checkpoint for license and inspection AND an officer smells alcohol on your breath, it’s probably cause. (so keep your window rolled up)

Good luck with your class assignment!

If you don’t know what your rights are, how are you going to know when the government is violating them?