State of Tennessee v. Larry Allen Hicks

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court held that the suspicionless drivers' license checkpoint violated Article I, section 7 of the Tennessee Constitution because the State failed to prove a sufficiently compelling public interest, meaningful effectiveness, and constitutionally adequate limits on officer discretion. The checkpoint also violated statutory restrictions because local officers initiated the stop, although the statutory violation alone did not automatically require suppression. The court reversed the Court of Criminal Appeals, affirmed suppression of the evidence, and dismissed the indictment. Chief Justice Anderson, concurring, would hold such checkpoints per se unconstitutional, while Justice Drowota, concurring in part and dissenting in part, would uphold their general validity but find this checkpoint unconstitutional because it lacked supervisory approval and adherence to administrative guidelines.