DC asks court to reconsider checkpoints ruling
Associated Press
08/11/09 9:10 AM EDT
WASHINGTON — City attorneys are asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision that checkpoints in a troubled Washington neighborhood were unconstitutional.
D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles says in the request that the court should find the checkpoints "may be reasonable, and hence constitutional" in some cases when authorities are responding to specific and credible threats of imminent violence.
Last year, D.C. police stopped cars in the Trinidad neighborhood, refusing to let in motorists who didn't prove they lived in the area or reveal their destinations. A civil liberties group sued on behalf of three drivers.
In July, a federal appeals court said the program was unconstitutional. It sent the case back to U.S. District Court, where a judge had refused to halt the checkpoints.
