BANGOR (AP) – The Maine Civil Liberties Union is questioning the legality of a series of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol stops this spring and last year along Interstate 95 near Old Town.

The MCLU is invoking the federal Freedom of Information Act and Maine’s Right to Know Law as it investigates the nature of the stops and to see if there were any violations of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures.

The temporary checkpoints were set up in April and last year in July and September.

The Border Patrol said during last year’s operation that the primary reason was to thwart potential terrorist threats, but that none had been uncovered.

Checkpoint society’

Shenna Bellows, MCLU executive director, said the checkpoints appear to be “another example of government harassment of law-abiding Americans who aren’t suspected of committing any crime.”

“None of us want to live in a checkpoint society, where we need government approval to run errands or take trips,” Bellows said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that law enforcement may engage in suspicionless searches at the border itself, and the Border Patrol has interpreted that to mean it may stop motorists anywhere at anytime within 100 miles of the border.

By that definition, Border Patrol agents could stop anyone anytime anywhere in Maine for no good reason, according to MCLU staff attorney Zachary Heiden, who noted that virtually all of Maine lies within 100 miles of the Canadian border or coast. “We all want the police to catch people who break the law, but none of us wants to live in a police state,” Heiden said.

The civil liberties group has launched a special Web site to collect information about those who were stopped last year and in April at the Old Town checkpoint.

It has requested that the government turn over copies of its policies and practices governing the operation of the Old Town checkpoint, as well as information about exactly who has been stopped and searched.

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On the Net:

MCLU checkpoint reports: www.mclu.orgorder.htm

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com