[lwpat]

A search of a Commercial Motor Vehicle along with a random stop has been justified by the courts under the "heavily regulated industry." Here is the latest case:

U.S. v. Delgado Slip Copy, 2007 WL 173890
S.D.Cal.,2007.
Missouri Revised Statute section 304.230.4(2) authorizes Missouri commercial vehicle enforcement officers to “require the operator of any commercial vehicle to stop and submit to a vehicle and driver inspection to determine compliance with commercial vehicle laws, rules, and regulations....” The Supreme Court of Missouri has interpreted a similar subsection of this statute, section 304.230.2,FN2 to allow Missouri highway patrolmen to stop any vehicle covered by the statute, even in the absence of any probable cause or reasonable suspicion of a violation. See State v. Villa-Perez, 835 S.W.2d 897, 899, 902 (Mo.1992). When similar terms are used within the same statute, they should receive the same meaning. See Firestone v. Howerton, 671 F.2d 317, 320 & n. 6 (9th Cir.1982). Therefore, section 304.230.4 similarly authorizes administrative stops of commercial vehicles in the absence of any probable cause or reasonable suspicion of a violation.

The circuits that have addressed the issue have indicated that commercial trucking is a closely regulated industry for purposes of allowing federal and state legislatures to enact statutes allowing administrative searches of commercial trucks. See United States v.. Mendoza-Gonzalez, 363 F.3d 788, 794 (8th Cir.2004); United States v. Vasquez-Castillo, 258 F.3d 1207, 1210 (10th Cir.2001); United States v. Fort, 248 F.3d 475, 480-82 (5th Cir.2001); United States v. Dominguez-Prieto, 923 F.2d 464, 468-70 (6th Cir .1991).

TruckinRanger has it exactly right.