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Court: Blood-alcohol tests not an unreasonable search

Posted at 10:18 AM on May 4, 2010 by Bob Collins (1 Comments)
Filed under: Crime and Justice

Attention drunk drivers: Blood tests to determine your blood-alcohol content are not a violation of your right against unreasonable searches, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled today.

The court ruled in the case of Jesse Harrison, who was stopped twice for suspicion of drunk driving in Carver County. On both occasions, Harrison agreed to have blood drawn by authorities, but when the tests later showed he was over the legal limit for alcohol, he said the tests were inadmissible because they were obtained without a warrant.

"The protections of the Minnesota Constitution against unreasonable searches and seizures are not triggered unless a person has a legitimate expectation of privacy, defined as 'those expectations of privacy that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable,'" the court said in today's ruling.

Here's the ruling.

Comments (1)

isn't that actually written into the law for when you get a drivers license you've agreed that when you are stopped by an officer that you have to submit to a drug test at their request....

As I recall from drivers ed. (way back when) you could refuse a breathalyzer and opt into a blood or urine test if you so choose, but you have to be able/willing to give one of the three.

Posted by Jon | May 4, 2010 11:36 AM