Saturday, February 27, 2016

Kansas DUI law that makes test refusal a crime is ruled unconstitutional

It's almost hard to believe that there is still a deliberative body out there who understands how the Constitution and the Bill of Rights are supposed to work.
That is a sad but true statement.
One thing that is encouraging about this is that other states who have these same laws will now be put on notice that they too may be revisited in a harsh new light.


Kansans who refuse to submit to a breath or blood test in DUI investigations cannot be criminally prosecuted for that refusal, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The court found unconstitutional a state law making it a crime to refuse such a test when no court-ordered warrant exists.

In its 6-1 ruling, the court found that the tests were in essence searches and the law punishes people for exercising their constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

Under Kansas law, anyone who operates a motor vehicle in the state has given implied consent to submit to such testing.

But the court ruled that the implied consent is not irrevocable and withdrawal of that consent cannot be criminally punished.

“Once a suspect withdraws consent, whether it be express consent or implied (under the statute), a search based on that consent cannot proceed,” the court ruled.

The state’s “compelling interest” in combating drunken driving and prosecuting DUI offenders does not outweigh the fundamental individual rights protected by the Constitution, according to Friday’s opinion.


But wait!
Here we have a Fucktard DA who thinks that Public Safety should take precedent over those quaint notions.

The ruling could have a big effect on the ability to prosecute repeat DUI offenders, said Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe.

But Howe said the U.S. Supreme Court is currently considering cases from other states on the same issue, and he is hopeful that Kansas could seek to join that action.
“I’m confidant the U.S. Supreme Court will find it lawful,” he said. “It’s a big public safety issue.”

My bold.

It's assholes like this guy who really piss me off. It's the exact same shit that the gun grabbers pull.
"Think of the children" , "Public Safety", National Security" and all the other catch phrases these pukes use are interchangeable depending on which Constitutional Amendment they want to ignore.

While I certainly don't condone drunk driving, at the same time there is already so much government overreach out there that this line of reasoning and the lame assed excuses these people use over and over needs to be folded, stapled and mutilated until they get it through their thick fucking skulls that the Constitution is the Supreme Law of the Land and all their desires to subvert it to suit their cause du jour do is fuck over the very children they profess to care about so much by eroding their basic rights.
The Stoopid gets old after seeing it over and over and over.

So it's very refreshing to see that there are some judiciary officials who still get it.



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