Tag: Blood-Alcohol Tests

The United States Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that the natural dissipation of alcohol in the human bloodstream is not a sufficient justification by itself to avoid the warrant requirement to conduct a blood draw in a routine drunk driving investigation. The long awaited McNeely decision (we previously previewed the McNeely case and its potential impact on Minnesota DWI cases last month) says that circumstances may arise in individual cases that make obtaining a warrant impractical, but the natural dissipation alone is insufficient to conduct a warrantless blood draw after a driving while impaired arrest.
Police say that a driver had difficulty following a curve in the road in White Bear Lake last week. The man reportedly lost control of his vehicle and the car ultimately crashed into the sunroom of a townhome near the intersection of Otter Lake Road and County Road 96. Unfortunately, the sunroom was occupied at the time of the car accident. A man in the sunroom sustained injuries in the crash. Police say that the injuries were not life-threatening, but few details are known.
Every state in the union has laws prohibiting drunk driving. In association with driving while impaired statutes, states generally have implied consent laws in place which mandate that drivers who fail a DWI test, or refuse a test, automatically lose their driver’s license before they have even been convicted, subject to the right to appeal the DL Revocation by filing an Implied Consent Petition.