Opinion

Rita Ann Stevens v. Commissioner of Public Safety

  • 850 N.W.2d 717
  • 2014 Minn. App. LEXIS 69
  • 2014 WL 3396522
Court
Court of Appeals of Minnesota
Filed
Jul 14, 2014
Status
Published
Author
Chutich
On the bench
Johnson, Rodenberg, Chutich
Cited by
49 cases
Authority
More cited than 11.4%

holding that “Minnesota’s implied-consent statute does not violate the unconstitutional-conditions doctrine by authorizing the commissioner of public safety to revoke the driver’s license of a person who has been arrested for DWI and has refused to submit to chemical testing”

How later courts described this case

  • holding that “Minnesota’s implied-consent statute does not violate the unconstitutional-conditions doctrine by authorizing the commissioner of public safety to revoke the driver’s license of a person who has been arrested for DWI and has refused to submit to chemical testing”
  • concluding that a warrantless search under the implied-consent statute would not violate the Fourth Amendment but expressly limiting that conclusion to "a civil action in which [driver sought] to rescind the temporary revocation of her driver's license"
  • holding that the implied-consent statute does not place an unconstitutional condition upon the exercise of Fourth-Amendment rights
  • holding that Minnesota Implied Consent Law does not violate the unconstitutional-conditions doctrine

Written by the judges who cited it.

The opinion

CHUTICH, Judge

(concurring specially).

I agree with the majority’s conclusion that sufficient evidence supports the district court’s finding that Stevens refused to submit to chemical testing and that her unconstitutional-conditions argument fails. I write separately concerning the unconstitutional-conditions discussion because I would base my rejection of that doctrine solely on the rationale stated in Part D of *732 the majority’s opinion. I agree with the majority that the Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Brooks, 838 N.W.2d 563 (Minn.2013), cert. denied, — U.S. -, 134 S.Ct. 1799 , 188 L.Ed.2d 759 (2014), prevents Stevens from establishing that the implied-consent statute coerced her into surrendering her Fourth Amendment right in a way that offends the unconstitutional-conditions doctrine.

This is a copy of a public record, reproduced as it was published. It is not legal advice, and it may not be the version a court would rely on. Check the official source before you cite it.

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