Checkpoints Like the Ones Federal Agents Are Running in D.C. Are Unconstitutional

C.J. Ciaramella
Fri, August 15, 2025 


Tom Hudson/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom

Residents of Washington, D.C., are turning out in force to protest the Trump administration's takeover of the city's law enforcement, which has included police checkpoints on popular streets staffed by federal agents.

NBC News and other outlets reported that more than 100 protesters turned out on Wednesday night to heckle federal law enforcement at a checkpoint on 14th Street Northwest and warn drivers of the police ahead.

And good for them.

Leaving aside the dubious overall legality of the White House's takeover—the D.C. attorney general filed a lawsuit over that issue Friday—the use of such generalized roadblocks is obnoxious, impinges on Americans' traditional freedom to travel, and is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.

Scott Michelman, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of the District of Columbia, tells Reason police checkpoints "are inherently problematic."

"They're evocative of a police state where law enforcement stops ordinary people going about their business for no reason at all," Michelman says.

And that's why, Michelman says, the Supreme Court sharply limited the use of police checkpoints. "They can't be used as a pretext for general crime control activities, and they can't be used just to harass the community, which is what I fear was happening this week on 14th Street," he says.

The Court ruled in the 2000 case City of Indianapolis v. Edmond that police roadblocks or checkpoints are only legal when they serve a specific road safety concern—such as stopping drunk drivers—not when they're used for general crime control.

"We cannot sanction stops justified only by the generalized and everpresent possibility that interrogation and inspection may reveal that any given motorist has committed some crime," the Court wrote.

A Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) spokesperson told The Washington Post that the roadblock was a "traffic safety compliance checkpoint," which the department has been setting up around the city weekly since 2023. The spokesperson said officers "stopped 28 vehicles, issued 38 infraction notices and arrested one man for driving without a permit and counterfeit tags," reports the Post.

The focus on car safety would at least arguably pass muster under Indianapolis v. Edmond, but that then raises the question of why federal agents from Homeland Security Investigations, who are typically tasked with investigating complex international crimes, were spending their time enforcing local traffic laws and checking vehicle tags.

However, The New York Times reported that federal agents were running sobriety checkpoints, not vehicle safety checkpoints.

"It's hard to take any of these conflicting explanations very seriously," Michelman says. "Instead, it appears that in keeping with President Trump's general contempt for the people of D.C., he's just interested in a campaign of harassment."

It's this sort of ambiguity that could get D.C. in trouble, as it has in the past. MPD used to operate "Neighborhood Safety Zone" checkpoints in the Trinidad neighborhood until a federal appeals court ruled they were unconstitutional in 2009.

Despite the fairly clear rule from the Supreme Court, police departments across the country still try to get away with setting up general anti-crime checkpoints.

In 2022, the Mississippi Justice Center filed a lawsuit challenging Jackson, Mississippi's use of "ticket, arrest, and tow" checkpoints, causing the city to overhaul its policies.

In 2019, Madison County, Mississippi, also settled a lawsuit over police roadblocks that happened to predominantly appear in black neighborhoods. As Reason reported in a 2017 investigation, black residents of Madison County had felt under siege from their sheriff's office for generations.

Several New England ACLU chapters also successfully sued to shut down a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) checkpoint in New Hampshire in 2023 that was nearly 100 miles from the Canadian border. The civil rights groups argued that the CBP was using the checkpoint to detain and search motorists, well beyond its authority and far from its jurisdiction.

Using vehicle safety regulations as a fig leaf to allow federal law enforcement to harass and investigate drivers shouldn't be tolerated by courts, and from the looks of it, it rightfully won't be tolerated by D.C. residents.

The post D.C. Residents Are Right To Protest Unconstitutional Police Roadblocks appeared first on Reason.com.

'D.C. Is Ours': Residents Vow To Fight Trump’s Takeover Of City's Police

Jennifer Bendery
Fri, August 15, 2025

HUFFPOST

WASHINGTON – Dozens of people gathered outside of D.C police headquarters on Friday to protest President Donald Trump’s takeover of the city’s police, vowing to fight his administration’s efforts to intimidate residents by flooding the city with federal law enforcement agents.

“Every day, at eight o’clock, until these terrorists get out of our streets, we want people to go outside your door… just stop and for five minutes, just make noise,” Nee Nee Taylor of Free DC, a campaign focused on protecting D.C.’s right to self-govern, told the crowd, to cheers.

“Making noise is resistance!” Taylor said. “Making noise is freedom!”

It’s day four of Trump’s deployment of federal agents throughout the city to supposedly root out D.C. crime, which is at a 30-year low. Beyond the various types of federal officers patrolling the streets, which so far have led to checkpoints on roads and homeless encampments being cleared out, Trump has seized control of the local police, too.

Related: Storming The Steps Of The Capitol: Why I Got Arrested With Other Veterans To Protest Trump

The president can do this for 30 days under the Home Rule Act. However, D.C.’s attorney general on Friday filed an emergency intervention in court, claiming Trump is unlawfully abusing his authority under this law.

Friday’s protest included a diverse mix of residents furious about what Trump is doing to the city. Families were there, along with retirees and young people. Some people were from other states, too, having driven in to protest what’s happening in D.C., in part because they fear Trump doing the same thing in cities in their states.

Free DC activists carry signs as they gather outside Washington Metropolitan Police Department headquarters in Washington, Friday, Aug. 15, 2025, in Washington. via Associated Press

Beth, a decades-long D.C. resident, wore finger puppets that were tiny hands with tiny handcuffs on them, along with a homemade sign with a message to Trump: “Keep Your Tiny Hands Off Our City.” A retiree, she said she decided to come out to Friday’s protest because she’s mad about “Trump’s takeover of our city.”

Asked if this is the scariest time she’s been in D.C., she quickly replied, “I don’t want to say scared, because I’m not afraid. I would say, troubling.”

More in U.S.


While there were about 150 people at this protest, which relocated from police headquarters to the nearby courthouse where the D.C. attorney general’s case was being heard, Beth said she didn’t understand why more people weren’t protesting. She mentioned having friends in Virginia with whom she discusses the need to take action against what Trump is doing, but they’re mostly complacent.

“I’m hopeful to see so many young people here,” she added.

Several people carried signs with messages like “Keep D.C. Free” and “Blondage Out. ICE Out,” the former term referring to Attorney General Pam Bondi. One attendee held up a large, upside-down U.S. flag, a recognized distress signal, with a message underneath for D.C. police officers: “The Bondi order is unlawful. You are not obligated to follow it.”

Taylor, the organizing director for Free DC, urged people to stay safe while also taking action every single day that Trump is occupying the city.

“Honestly, y’all, we need to resist in a way that’s safe right now,” she told the crowd. “This is a message to our youth: They want you. They want you. So I advise you not to walk in pairs because, you walking in pairs is a crime right now, unfortunately.”

“It’s called walking while being young and Black with a couple of your friends,” Taylor added. “That’s the name of that illegal law.”

A D.C. resident protesting Trump's takeover of D.C. police said Trump needs to keep "his tiny hands" off the city. Jen Bendery

Keya Chatterjee, Free DC’s executive director, said the excuses the Trump administration is giving for its “hostile takeover of D.C.” are clearly nonsense.

“So the reason they want to take over D.C. is because authoritarians always want to silence dissent,” Chatterjee said. “Are we going to let them do that?”

“No!” shouted the crowd in response.

Carol, a retiree from upstate New York, drove into D.C. on Thursday to participate in protests happening around the city. She said her late father, who served overseas in the military, would be “turning over in his grave” at the way Trump was militarizing D.C.

“When I was growing up, we were dealing with the Holocaust and all that stuff,” she said, talking about the rise of Nazis in Germany. “I remember that generation and this generation, people said we’d never go back to that again. It’s happening again... We’ve got to stop it now.”

Several D.C. police officers were on the scene, monitoring the event. One officer, who requested anonymity, said he and other officers don’t know who’s in charge of their department at the moment and there’s been no guidance.