Court: Warrant Needed To Draw Blood In DWI Cases
Texas' highest criminal court has ruled that drawing the blood of an uncooperative drunken driving suspect in Texas without a search warrant is unconstitutional.
Legal experts say the decision by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals likely invalidates state law that had provided law enforcement with several circumstances in which they didn't need a warrant to obtain a blood sample from a driving-while-intoxicated suspect who refused such a request.
Wednesday's decision follows a 2013 ruling in which the U.S. Supreme Court said that police usually must try to obtain a search warrant from a judge before ordering blood tests for drunken-driving suspects.
In the Texas case, police obtained without a search warrant a blood sample from a South Texas DWI suspect, who said the action violated his rights.
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