Update: Minnesota Supreme Court Accepts Review Of Minnesota DWI Test Refusal Law

Posted On December 02, 2015 by Daniel Koewler
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We've got more developments to report regarding whether or not Minnesota's DWI Test refusal law is constitutional. In a not-so-surprising turn of events, the Minnesota Supreme Court just granted review of the Trahan case, and set a briefing schedule for the parties. You can follow the boring progress of the case here.

If you don't recall, Trahan was the case where the Minnesota Court of Appeals concluded that our DWI test refusal law is unconstitutional. To be more specific, the test refusal law is unconstitutional when law enforcement try to get a blood sample - Trahan deals strictly with blood tests, while the previously-issued Bernard case decided that you can charge someone with refusal if they refuse a breath test.

Now, the Minnesota Supreme Court will decide if the refusal law can withstand constitutional scrutiny when blood tests are at stake. We'll just add in conclusion that the unintentional timing of this is interesting - just this week the Hawaii Supreme Court reached the opposite conclusion that Minnesota reached in Bernard, and found that their own test refusal law was unconstitutionally coercive.

To say that Minnesota's DWI law is unsettled at this point would be a massive understatement. As always, keep checking back here, and we'll keep you posted as to the latest developments.