WASHINGTON - There is new reaction Friday night to a major court ruling involving a series of controversial checkpoints in a D.C. neighborhood.

A rash of crime in the District's Trinidad community led police to restrict access for several blocks. Now, a federal court said the checkpoints violated constitutional rights.

D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles announced Friday that the city would appeal a federal appeals court ruling that questioned the constitutionality of police checkpoints used last year in a crime-plagued neighborhood.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday ordered a lower court to reconsider its refusal to block the checkpoints. The ruling said the police checkpoints program was likely unconstitutional.

It sends the case back to the U.S. District Court for a decision to halt the checkpoints.

Nickles told NewsChannel 8's NewsTalk Friday that the city would take the case to the Supreme Court if necessary. 

Nickles said, "The violence stopped, the homicides stopped and we haven't had that situation again in any part of the city."

In June 2008, D.C. police began stopping cars in the Trinidad neighborhood, refusing to let in motorists who would not prove they lived in the area or who did not reveal their destinations.

"Whether or not I had one of these four reasons -- basically those were the only reasons my rights would be granted -- otherwise I had no rights," said Caneisha Mills, a plaintiff.

Police Chief Cathy Lanier (web | news | bio) has said she would continue using the checkpoints to deter crime until a court told her not to. In a statement she said, "We all did what was appropriate and what we believed to be lawful to save lives in the Trinidad neighborhood..."

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