Critical Thinking: Billy Is Driving Home from a Bar on a Friday

question 49

Multiple Choice

Critical Thinking:
Billy is driving home from a bar on a Friday night when he comes upon a DUI checkpoint. At the checkpoint, an officer smells alcohol on Billy's breath and asks him to step out of the car. Billy stumbles out of the car and slurs his words when asked a few basic questions about who he is and where he is going. Billy refuses to consent to a breathalyzer, but the officer does have a video camera record Billy as he is stumbling and slurring his words. Billy is arrested on suspicion of DUI and taken to the police station. At the station, a sample of Billy's blood is taken. Although Billy does not consent to this, he is too drunk to put up much resistance. At his trial, officers play a video of Billy slurring his words and also introduce the blood evidence. He is convicted of DUI.
-Had this checkpoint a "drug checkpoint" instead of a DUI checkpoint, then which statement would be true?

• A) Case law indicates that appellate courts would have upheld the use of this checkpoint as well as Billy's arrest for DUI.
• B) Case law indicates that appellate courts would have upheld the general use of a "drug checkpoint," but Billy's conviction would be overturned because he did not have any drugs.
• C) Case law indicates that appellate courts would disapprove of a "drug checkpoint" and would also overturn a DUI conviction stemming from a stop at a "drug checkpoint".
• D) None of these statements are true.

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Definitions:

Hypotenuse

The longest side of a right-angled triangle, directly opposite the right angle, calculated using the Pythagorean theorem.

Inches

A unit of measurement equal to 1/12th of a foot, used primarily in the United States and United Kingdom.

Vector Addition

A method of adding angles.

Adjacent Side

In a right-angled triangle, the side that is next to the angle in question, but is not the hypotenuse.