The United States Supreme Court ruled today in a Missouri case that police cannot take a blood test from a drunk driving suspect without a warrant, during a routine drunk driving arrest.Tony Rothert is the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri. He says the decision requires police officers to consider all circumstances during a drunk driving arrest when deciding if a warrant is necessary.
“If under the circumstances there is time to get a warrant, then the police officer should get a warrant. If given the circumstance there is not time, then it might be justifiable to take blood without a warrant,” said Rothert.
About half the states already prohibit such warrantless draws.
The case springs from the arrest of Tyler McNeely, who was subjected to an involuntary blood test during a routine drunk driving arrest in Cape Girardeau County in 2010.
The state of Missouri argued that alcohol dissipates in the blood stream while officers await a warrant, thus destroying evidence