Tag: Warrantless DWI Tests

Max Keller of Keller Criminal Defense Attorneys recently won the first known victory on the McNeely warrantless DWI testing issue in an Order from Judge Grunke in a Stearns Co. Implied Consent hearing challenging a Driver’s License Revocation. Two other Judges recently issues similar rulings in Washington County and Sibley County.
If you have a criminal DWI case or criminal DWI test refusal case, and/or civil implied consent driver’s license revocation cases pending, you may have heard of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in McNeely v. Missouri issued 4-17-13. In McNeely the U.S. Supreme Court held that Warrantless DWI Tests are illegal without consent or “exigency circumstances.” The U.S. Supreme Court said that Missouri could not take a non-consensual blood test from a driver in a standard DWI case (no accident) without either a warrant OR a showing of special circumstances like an emergency stemming from injured persons in a car accident (i.e. “exigent circumstances”).
he issue of warrantless DWI tests and coerced consent to testing was argued before the Minnesota Supreme Court in the Brooks case on September 11, 2013. For more information, check this blog later this week. For more information about warrantless DWI testing and Minnesota DWI’s look here: Minnesota DWI Defense Attorneys.
Authorities in Hennepin County reportedly obtained a warrant to draw blood in an alleged drunk driving investigation on May 1. Authorities claim that a St. Cloud, Minnesota man led an off-duty Plymouth police officer on a chase that began in Maple Grove near Interstate 94 and Weaver Lake Road. Hennepin County deputies and officers from the Rogers Police Department reportedly were also involved.
Today the United States Supreme Court decided the DWI case of McNeely v. Missouri. We have previously blogged on this case several times. In summary, the high Court said that police cannot take a DWI blood sample from a driver without his consent where they also did not have a warrant. This means that Warrantless DWI Tests are unconstitutional, illegal, and should not be allowed. Thus any DWI test evidence gathered without a warrant should be tossed out by a Judge.
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.
An extremely important DWI case from Missouri dealing with warrantless DWI testing was argued before the United States Supreme Court on January 9, 2013. Although this McNeely case came from Missouri, based on Missouri law and is being argued in Washington, D.C. before the highest court in the land, it has the potential to destroy the theoretical underpinnings of Minnesota DWI and implied consent case law.