4/21/16 We are supposed to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, and searches of a person, their body, and their property, without a warrant and without exigent circumstances are unconstitutional.
However, a number of states (which does not include Arizona, thankfully) have made it a criminal offense to refuse to submit to blood or breath testing. Since driving is a privilege and not a right, the civil penalty of a license suspension action is not constitutionally unreasonable, and in fact virtually every state has such civil penalties in place. But to make a person criminally liable, and conceivably go to jail, for exercising their 4th amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches is another story.
Arguments were heard yesterday in the United States Supreme Court on appeals from convictions in North Dakota and Minnesota, where the defendant was convicted of the crime of failing to submit to a chemical test.
For more on this story, see the wbez.com or startribune.com articles below:
http://www.startribune.com/u-s-supreme-court-weighs-minnesota-s-implied-consent-law/376295001/
To hear oral argument in the North Dakota case, click the link below:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/podcaststoreage/Birchfield+v.+North+Dakota+Supreme+Court+Argument.mp3
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