What Fifth Amendment?
July 7, 2013Gwinnett County, Georgia has a “no refusals” policy when it comes to testing for DUI/DWI.
No one wants to defend drunk drivers. If a drunken driver harmed a member of my family, I’d be thirsting for blood.
But the Fifth Amendment reads, "No person […] shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself […]." Gwinnett County’s policy seems a pretty clear violation of the Fifth Amendment to me.
Here in Missouri, the first refusal to take a breathalyzer (or urine) test results in a one-year suspension of the driver’s license. Georgia’s law appears to be similar (or harsher). Both states base their laws on the ‘implied consent’ drivers grant to obtain a license in the first place.
The lawmen in Gwinnett County might want to read up on Missouri v. McNeely: Trouble for Implied Consent Laws?
No Truce With Kings 
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