[A CA Guy]

Stopping people in the streets and checking out the car for highway safety has been going on for as long as cars have been on the road.

You do not have a birthright to do anything with impunity on PUBLIC roads. I don't know where you get that from.

[freeeee]

Stopping people in the streets and checking out the car for highway safety has been going on for as long as cars have been on the road.

...in Russia.

In America that practice was ended with the 4th Amendment which was a direct response to the British "General Warrant".

Roadblocks in the US were resurrected in 1992 with a SCOTUS ruling that admitted roadblocks did indeed violate the 4th Amendment, but ruled that taking drunks off the road was a compelling state interest that overruled 4th Amendment protection.

Pure, unmitigated court activism. SCOTUS has no authority to override the Constitution. Rehnquist wrote the decision, showing that "conservatives" just LOVE judicial activism when it suits their purposes. Hypocrites.

Your historical revisionism won't fly here.

[metalurgist]

You do not have a birthright to do anything with impunity on PUBLIC roads. I don't know where you get that from.

I wonder what Jefferson, Madison, Washington, Monroe, Henry would have said if they were told that they could be stopped on a public road, asked for their papers and searched? They probably would have answered with the 10th amendment.