A divided Pennsylvania Superior Court has declined to find different standards for determining the constitutionality of DUI checkpoints versus other types of police checkpoints, in this case, one for monitoring seat-belt law compliance.
In ruling 6-3 in Commonwealth v. Garibay to suppress evidence in the DUI case against defendant Cipriano Garibay, the majority reemphasized prior court precedent that the Tarbert/Blouse guidelines used to determine the constitutionality of a DUI checkpoint equally apply to non-DUI checkpoints like the one that resulted in Garibay’s arrest. At particular issue was the rationale for the time and location of the checkpoints.
