DUI: It’s a crime to refuse blood test on U.S. land

[Jesus Malverde]

A federal appeals court overturned a driver’s alcohol-related conviction Friday and sent a message to anyone caught drinking and driving: If you’re on federal land, it’s a crime to refuse a blood test.

The case involved Sean Harrington, whose parked car was spotted by a Yosemite National Park ranger one night in June 2011 with the lights on and the motor running. The ranger described him as drunk and argumentative. He was arrested and taken to a police station, where, the court said, he refused to submit to a test to determine his blood-alcohol level.

Before locking Harrington up, another ranger read him, three different times, a summary of the California law: that if he refused the test, his license would be suspended for at least a year, and the refusal would also be grounds for criminal prosecution — if he was additionally found guilty of driving under the influence.

No one told Harrington that federal law, which applies in the national park, makes it a crime punishable by up to six months in jail to refuse a blood-alcohol test, even without a DUI conviction.

http://blog.sfgate.com/crime/2014/04/18/dui-its-a-crime-to-refuse-blood-test-on-u-s-land/

[msongs]

1. maybe our government overlords can start waterboarding us too nt

[Jesus Malverde]

2. That there seems to be duplication of state laws on the federal level shows the overreach..nt

[The Straight Story]

3. The govt has a right to put needles into your body

from vaccines to blood tests - so no real surprise that the court ruled as it did.

[2pooped2pop]

4. In Indiana it's an automatic dui if blood test shows you smoked pot last month

Yep, that's how backwards we are here. Not active pot mind you but pot metabolites that show up in your system for at least a month after you smoked it. Yep, you are still under the influence of it. No amount is legal in Indiana.

Just another way to keep their prisons filled with the poor and mostly dem voters.

[LuvNewcastle]

6. That is fucked up!

I would challenge that law if they ever gave me a DUI for something I did a month ago. There's no way anyone can say that is driving under the influence.

[2pooped2pop]

10. they do and it is unchallengeable

if ANY shows up in your blood work, (and they are doing blood work) it is automatic because pot is a class 1 substance with NO other use and their policy is zero tolerance. SO any in your system is dui per se. Just like if you had come back with .08 in alcohol. Medical pot is not an accepted defense either. I think there are like 7 states with this policy.

and...the blood work may take 4 or 5 months to come back, so you sit in limbo or many people assume everything is aok, then they are surprised by an arrest warrant. If nothing shows in your blood and you are good to go, they do not notify you.

I am struggling to make these backwoods republicans understand that they are voting for bullshit against their own best interest.

of course if you are a person with money, you never get the blood test. They just use the breathylizer for you.

[madville]

5. I have conflicting views

On one side I favor strong DUI laws because the safety of the public trumps individual rights in some circumstances.

On the other I support an individual's right to refuse to incriminate themselves, and voluntarily submitting evidence against yourself is not in one's best interests.

Here if a DUI suspect refuses a blood test they just get an order, restrain them and take it anyway. Kind of cuts the whole middleman of choice out.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

7. And this is why the goons think they can sodomize and force enemas on people.

[JJChambers]

8. Implied consent

Read the fine print: by getting a drivers license you are consenting to a test of your blood, breath or urine -- at the discretion of the officer.

[LuvNewcastle]

9. They can take your blood without consent here in Mississippi as long as

they have a judge's order. It's an automatic 6 month license suspension if you refuse the breathalyzer. So if you're pulled over and they try to give you a DUI and you think you might be just a tiny bit over the limit, the best thing to do is to refuse the breathalyzer and make them go through the process of getting a judge's order for a blood test. By the time they do all of that, your body will have processed the alcohol and you'll be under the limit. A 6 month suspension is a hell of a lot better than all the fines and bullshit you have to go through when you get a DUI.

[dembotoz]

11. i have bad veins--to donate blood(which i do) or simple blood work is sometimes a problem

if the professional vampires (health care professionals) have trouble with my arms, i sure as fucking hell am not thrilled
with some clown cop doing it

[Ms. Toad]

12. Way to misread a court case.

(Not you - the article).

1. The case REVERSED his conviction under the federal law. (So the case says nothing about whether the law itself is constitutional, because that question was not before the court.)

2. Even assuming the headline issue had been before the court, under the statute it is not a crime (generally) to refuse a blood test on US Land. It is a misdemeanor to refuse a blood test only if you are both operating a vehicle and on federal property.