Minnesota Court Declares DWI Statute Unconstitutional

Yesterday, the Minnesota Supreme Court held that Minnesota’s Test Refusal Statute was unconstitutional as applied to blood and urine test refusals. In the opinions, State v. Thompson and State v. Trahan, the Court followed the holding and logic of Birchfield v. North Dakota, ___ U.S. ___, 136 S. Ct. 2160 (2016) that the 4^th Amendment does not allow the State to prosecute a DWI suspect for refusing to provide a blood or urine test if requested. With this decision, the Court affirmed that Minnesota citizens have the right to refuse to submit to an unreasonable and unconstitutional search and cannot be prosecuted for exercising that right. This decision now requires law enforcement to get a warrant to obtain a blood or urine sample from DWI suspects.