In an unanimous and strongly worded ruling, a three judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has declared the District of Columbia's so-called Neighborhood Safety Zone checkpoint program to be unconstitutional.

Police checkpoints that cordoned off a crime-plagued D.C. neighborhood last year were an "extraordinary" measure that "flies in the face" of prior court rulings and violates the Constitution, a lawyer for plaintiffs opposed to the barriers told a federal appeals court Friday.

A civil liberties group argued Friday that a federal judge was wrong when he refused to block the District of Columbia police department's vehicle checkpoint program, saying the initiative is an invasion of privacy.

The Legal Times just released the following report of today's U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit oral argument about the D.C. military-style checkpoint program:

The Partnership for Civil Justice pressed its challenge of D.C. police checkpoints, asking an appeals court to overturn a ruling last year that cleared the way for authorities to continue using the tactic.

The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund filed the successful lawsuit challenging the military-style checkpoint program whereby police could surround a targeted neighborhood, interrogate people without suspicion, and prohibit entry to those persons who lack a police-defined 'legitimate reason' for driving into the neighborhood. Read more

PCJF filed an opening appellate brief in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in opposition to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department's controversial "Neighborhood Safety Zone" roadblock/checkpoint seizure and interrogation program.

In response to a ruling today in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denying plaintiffs' Motion for a Preliminary Injunction to end the D.C. police's illegal checkpoint program, the plaintiffs immediately filed a Notice of Appeal to the D.