The Missouri house passed a proposed law that would allow police to take a blood sample of those suspected of drunk driving without requiring a warrant.
The law is part of a nationwide trend of “no refusals” to tests that would chemically establish intoxication, by either breath test or blood test, to determine if a suspect is above the nationwide legal limit of .08% BAC (blood alcohol content), indicating legal impairment.
Numerous constitutional questions arise from this law, as to whether this is considered “self-incriminating” evidence in DWI cases. Other states, such as Texas, get around this by essentially having judges on call to issue warrants on the spot.
The house bill is designated as HB 1695. The bill moves on to the Senate (as SB 880) for passage, and other drunk driving law changes may be included in the final package, including possible enhanced penalties for enhanced or high BAC results of .15%, nearly twice the legal limit.
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