Council Grills Lanier, Nickles on Checkpoint

Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D), who represents Ward 5, where the checkpoints were established, said he had initially gone along with the program. But after hearing from ward residents at a community meeting Friday night, he had concerns.

Slightly more than half of the 100 people at the community meeting filled out a questionnaire, and nearly two-thirds of respondents opposed the checkpoints. "The checkpoints create an atmosphere of uneasiness and distrust," Thomas said yesterday.

Deborah Golden, a Trinidad resident and constitutional lawyer, said she had to go through the checkpoints several times. They were "clearly unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment" that protects citizens from unlawful searches and seizures, she said.

She also said that she was able to easily circumvent the checkpoints by cutting through alleys and parking lots when she was in a hurry to get home and that she saw many others doing that as well.

The city's legal defense is flawed, other witnesses testified.

Although Nickles has previously cited a federal appellate court opinion upholding similar checkpoints in New York, critics said that the appellate courts for the District have ruled just the opposite and that a 2000 Supreme Court case appeared to invalidate the District's approach.

The D.C. Court of Appeals was clear, said Johnny Barnes, executive director of Washington's chapter of the ACLU: "Our court of last resort said you can't do it."

He said the ACLU was still considering whether to sue the District.

Staff writer Michael Birnbaum contributed to this report.