> any more than license checkpoint (which the courts have also ruled isn't a violation)
Personally, I think that was a terrible ruling. Any suspicionless stop and check/investigation/search in a place everyone has a right to be should be treated as an unreasonable search.
The pharmacy records checks you're describing here are based on evidence that would likely hold up as probable cause in court.
In the US, driving checkpoints are only allowed to check for compliance with driving laws only for the driver: drivers license, car registration and insurance, and sobriety of the driver. It is part of what you give up to drive in public roads. But checkpoints can't search passengers or the car, unless something else that is illegal is in plain view.
My understanding of the case law on checkpoints is that it started with inland immigration checkpoints, and similar reasoning got applied to checkpoints meant to catch drunk drivers. I consider it an evisceration of the fourth amendment, as did Justice William J. Brennan when he wrote as much in his dissent.
Personally, I think that was a terrible ruling. Any suspicionless stop and check/investigation/search in a place everyone has a right to be should be treated as an unreasonable search.
The pharmacy records checks you're describing here are based on evidence that would likely hold up as probable cause in court.