For the Defense - Volume 1, Issue 3 - 2016 - 72
Joseph P. Green, Jr.
The Application of Birchfield v.
North Dakota to Refusal Cases and the
Involuntariness of Consent to Blood Testing
I
n the short run, until the courts resolve all of the
cases that were filed before the Birchfield decision on June 23, 2016, many motorists will challenge the voluntariness of their consent to blood
testing. This article summarizes Birchfield and its
implications on Pennsylvania DUI prosecutions.
Birchfield Summarized
In Birchfield v. North Dakota,1 the United States
Supreme Court decided three consolidated cases addressing the Fourth Amendment reasonableness of blood and breath testing, and state
implied consent laws. In the Birchfield cases, the
Court articulated a series of principles and applied
those principles to the 3 cases before it. We can
summarize these principles as follows:
1. A blood seizure is a search subject to the
Fourth Amendment's warrant requirement, and
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For The Defense | Vol. 1, Issue 3
may not be administered as a search incident to
a lawful arrest for drunk driving.2 A breath test,
on the other hand, presents a less-intrusive search
that can be justified on probable cause without a
warrant.
2. Implied-consent laws that impose civil penalties and evidentiary consequences on motorists
who refuse to comply are not unconstitutional.3
3. Where a motorist refuses a breath test, and
where police have probable cause to believe that
evidence will be uncovered during a blood test,
police may seek a search warrant to conduct an
involuntary blood seizure.4
4. Motorists cannot be deemed to have committed a criminal offense by refusing to consent to
a warrantless blood test.5
5. Valid consent to a blood test is a satisfactory substitute for a search warrant. Motorists can
give valid consent, but the Court in the Birchfield
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of For the Defense - Volume 1, Issue 3 - 2016
Contents
For the Defense - Volume 1, Issue 3 - 2016 - 1
For the Defense - Volume 1, Issue 3 - 2016 - 2
For the Defense - Volume 1, Issue 3 - 2016 - Contents
For the Defense - Volume 1, Issue 3 - 2016 - 4
For the Defense - Volume 1, Issue 3 - 2016 - 5
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