Steve Tanner loses legal battle with Idaho Fish and Game
Courtesy of Kootenai Valley Times Facebook
BONNERS FERRY -- The United States District Court for the District of Idaho ruled last week that wildlife officials may continue to operate checkpoints to stop vehicles and enforce state hunting and fishing regulations.
A federal judge dismissed Boundary County resident Steve Tanner’s lawsuit which claimed that his Fourth Amendment rights had been violated in 2017 when he was arrested for driving around a checkpoint set up by Idaho Fish and Game.
Tanner originally pleaded not guilty, and his charges were dropped when a state magistrate judge determined that the arresting officers did not have sufficient probable cause to initially stop Tanner.
After filing a civil suit against Idaho Fish and Game, and the arresting officers, Tanner had his case moved to federal court where he held that his arrest stemmed from an “unreasonable search and seizure” due to the Idaho Fish and Game checkpoint.
In his ruling, Chief U.S. District Court Judge David C. Nye agreed with Tanner that the checkpoint is indeed a seizure, but maintained that such a seizure is not unreasonable, and therefore a violation of Tanner’s Fourth Amendment did not occur. Nye cited a two-step analysis for his reasoning:
“First, the court must determine whether the primary purpose of the checkpoint was to advance the general interest in crime control. If so, then the stop is per se invalid under the Fourth Amendment.
If the checkpoint is not per se invalid as a crime control device, then the court must judge the checkpoint’s reasonableness, hence, its constitutionality, on the basis of the individual circumstances. This requires consideration of the gravity of the public concerns served by the seizure, the degree to which the seizure advances the public interest, and the severity of the interference with individual liberty."
The ruling is the presumptive end to a legal battle that has dragged on for over two years since Tanner filed his first suit.
“I'm disappointed,” Tanner said Monday in an interview with the Associated Press. “It's ludicrous to say I didn't have my Fourth Amendment rights violated.”