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"highway checkpoint - shades of 1930s Germany"

In California they are called "Sobriety Checkpoints." The policy is that there is a big lighted sign that says there is one ahead and there must be at least two opportunities to turn off the street before reaching the checkpoint. The catch here is that there or motorcycle cops stationed at these "turn off streets" and if you aren't wearing your seatbelt or you have a signal/brake light out or anything like that, they stop you for that, then they ask for your liscense and registration and proof of insurance - then they ask you if you've been drinking...

In the article above, they posted the dates and places of the checkpoints comming up and gave a phone number to check to make sure. I'd say if I were going to go drinking and driving I would deserve it if I got into one of those.

Here are two thoughts on your comments.

This isn't about defending drunks who wish to drive. Catch one weaving down the road and put them in jail. Don't subject the populace to a road block.

You see, in my opinion the idea of a roadblock is about as foreign to a free society as it gets. And warning me in advance or making me try to avoid something that doesn't support the idea of a free people isn't my idea of an examle of what our government policies should be.

If there is a terrorist threat or a regional emergency, I might approve of a roadblock, but not as a matter of routine policy.

In SD, they don't warn you, they throw them up under a hill. I've been thru three already this summer, and all three times I was coming come from a late work issue. It's a revenue scam. It's a catch-all for any and all possible infractions that will allow them to "tax" you. I see nothing constitutional about it whatsoever.