Imagine driving down the road with a broken tail light and being pulled over by a police officer. Few would argue there is anything unfair about this routine stop.

However, what if that same officer proceeded to search your vehicle for illegal drugs without any kind of warrant or provocation besides the fact that he/she believed you might have drugs aboard? How many people think that would be fair?

The United States Supreme Court justices for one. A unanimous Supreme Court ruling supports allowing police officers to stop motorists for minor traffic violations even if their real motive is to look for evidence of drug trafficking.

Whatever happened to the Fourth Amendment protecting citizens against unreasonable searches and seizures?

This ruling directly infringes on our freedom to drive down the street and not worry if the police think we look like we might have drugs aboard. This ruling allows them to pull a vehicle over and search it without probable cause.

We understand the importance of fighting the growing drug problem in our country, but we are worried about the way this ruling could be utilized.

Just because someone looks like a so called drug dealer, should that give our police the right to pull them over and search their personal belongings?

How will this affect relations between law enforcement and the minority groups that have been stereotyped in certain areas of the country?

There is a fine line here between making the country a safer place and pushing the boundaries of how powerful and intrusive our law enforcement agencies should be.

The time is here and we have to decide which is more important to the future of our country – controlling the drug problem or living in a free country.

We can do both. Can’t we?