While George DePiro's Sept. 29 letter about the dubious validity of the Northway checkpoints was excellent, he failed to mention that four years ago the U.S. Supreme Court declared that such checkpoints within U.S. borders were unconstitutional in regard to warrantless drug searches, though legal for sobriety checkpoints.

In point of fact, the dogs at these checkpoints (which are far from the Canadian border) are not only trained to sniff out terrorist-related contraband like explosives and bio-chem weapons, but drugs as well, in full violation of this 6-3 decision that to my knowledge has not been overturned.

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