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MN: Driving and PC is enough to justify a warrantless search for BAC

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Request to see a driver's license of a person driving a car invokes no constitutional protections under the Fourth Amendment or the state constitution. Defendant consented to the officer looking in the glove compartment for proof on insurance, and that led to a plain view. Shaw v. State, 2009 WY 18, 2009 Wyo. LEXIS 16 (February 12, 2009).* "Minnesota's criminal test-refusal statute does not violate the constitutional prohibition against unreasonable searches because exigent circumstances created by rapidly dissipating evidence of blood-alcohol concentration justify the warrantless search." The underlying offense does not need to a felony. State v. Netland, 2009 Minn. LEXIS 30 (February 12, 2009): In Shriner, we held that the "rapid, natural dissipation of alcohol in the blood creates single-factor exigent circumstances that will justify the police taking a warrantless, nonconsensual blood draw from a defendant, provided that the police have probable cause to believe the defendant committed criminal vehicular homicide or operation...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on February 16, 2009 (boomark / email).