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4th Amendment

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Call it a win for motorists, as the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that in certain circumstances the marking of tires on parked vehicles with chalk amounts to an unreasonable search and seizure.

As our American readers should all know, the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures is protected by the 4th Amendment of the US Constitution, and here the 6th Circuit ruled in favor of an interesting argument to find that chalk marks on parked vehicles rising to this level of thinking.

The crux of the story centers around the town of Saginaw, Michigan, which has been using tire chalk to measure the time a vehicle is parked in designated parking zones. 

According to the American Motorcyclist Association (AMA), the the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is offering law enforcement agencies funding incentives to setup checkpoints that target only motorcyclists. Based off a controversial program used by the New York State Police, the NHTSA is offering $350,000 in grants to five law enforcement agencies to run the program, which if successful could be further funded and expanded across the entire United States.

The checkpoints, which derive their legality from DUI checkpoint court rulings, primarily look for motorcyclists riding without a license or DOT approved helmet, and cite riders for aftermarket exhaust and lighting modifications. However the checkpoints fundamentally differ from DUI checkpoints in that they specifically are targeting a minority group of citizens (DUI checkpoints involve all motorists), and are doing so with no presumption that there is an increased risk to motorcyclists and the community as a whole when the checkpoints are being conducted.