My view on it. No need to be tied to a holiday.
I wouldn't mind them on the way out of a bar parking lot, with the owner's permission and clear notification to people entering. Just like the Sam's receipt check; you knowingly choose to accept it on entry. OTOH, absolutely no PI arrests of passengers inside a vehicle at the time it's stopped, (even if the driver is arrested for DUI) and nothing else gets checked except a very quick check of the driver's apparent sobriety. If the initial observation fails, then route them to the back of the lot for a FST and/or breathalyzer, but no charges other than DUI even possible as a result of the checkpoint...even if the driver gets out with a stolen .44 in his waistband and pees on the cop's leg.
Honestly, if they were really concerned with getting drunks off the streets here, there's a stop sign about 4 blocks from one bar in town that would give them more legitimate PC stops than all the LE in the county could handle right around closing time. It even has a fairly blind corner in two directions, so they wouldn't have to try to hide. Just line up the patrol cars on the side street where the lead one can see about a car length back from the sign and start making stops. DPS and SO occasionally do that to the four-way stop near the bar at the edge of town, but city PD is still pretending that 115 DUI arrests per year (30+ of those caught only after they wrecked) is a good record in a college town with at least four popular bars.
