State v. Swan
State v. Swan
Opinion of the Court
**123Defendant was arrested for driving under the influence of intoxicants (DUII) and advised of his Miranda rights. In response, he invoked his right to counsel. Afterwards, the arresting officer asked defendant 28 DUII interview questions and then asked if he would consent to a breath test. Defendant moved to suppress his answers to the 28 questions and all derivative evidence, which he argued included his decision to take the breath test and the test results. The state, for its part, conceded that asking defendant the 28 DUII interview questions after he had invoked his right to counsel violated Article I, section 12, of the Oregon Constitution. The state took the position, however, that suppressing the officer's questions and defendant's answers was sufficient to vindicate that right. The Court of Appeals agreed and also observed that asking defendant for consent to take a breath test did not constitute prohibited "interrogation" under Article I, section 12. State v. Swan ,
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
This case arises out of defendant's claims that the arresting officer violated his right to counsel under Article I, section 11, and Article I, section 12, of the Oregon Constitution. Before setting out the facts, we first describe briefly those two state constitutional sources of a right to counsel.
Article I, section 11, provides that, "[i]n all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall have the right *** to be heard by *** counsel."
*11Ordinarily, the Article I, section 11, right to counsel does not attach until indictment. State v. Sparklin ,
**124A DUII suspect's pretrial Article I, section 11, right to counsel is "not as broad as the [ Article I, section 11,] right to counsel that an accused enjoys at trial." Durbin ,
A suspect also has an Article I, section 12, right to counsel that derives from the state constitutional Miranda right. State v. Haynes ,
Not all direct questions constitute "interrogation" for the purposes of Article I, section 12. State v. Boyd ,
A. Facts
At approximately 3:00 a.m., Officer Enz received a report of a traffic accident.
Based on those observations, the officer told defendant that he believed it was likely that defendant was impaired, and he asked defendant if he would perform field sobriety *12tests. In response, defendant asked for "an opportunity to speak with his attorney." Officer Enz said that, "if [defendant] had a cell phone *** he could call the attorney from the car." Defendant "started dialing a phone, so [the officer] closed the car door and went to go take measurements of the scene." Approximately 11 minutes later, the officer went back to defendant and asked if "would like to perform the voluntary field sobriety tests." Defendant asked, "What exactly are you asking me to do?" The officer described the tests, and defendant repeated everything that the officer said into his phone. Defendant then said to the officer, "Yes. Yes, I will."
Defendant did not do well on the field sobriety tests, and Officer Enz told him that he was under arrest for DUII and advised him of his Miranda rights. Among other things, Enz told defendant that "[h]e ha[d] the right to have an **126attorney with him while he's being questioned." After being advised of those rights, defendant's "first response was that he wanted to talk to his attorney." The officer explained that defendant would have "another opportunity to consult with somebody privately when [they] got back to the precinct." Defendant responded, " 'Yes. *** Yes, I understand my rights.' " The officer did not ask defendant any questions between the second time defendant invoked his right to counsel and the time they arrived at the precinct.
When they got to the precinct, the officer provided defendant with his cell phone, a landline, a phone book, and a copy of the Implied Consent Combined Report. He told defendant that "he could make as many calls as he'd like to whomever he'd like and that [the officer would] be closing the cell door to provide him privacy while he was on the phone." After explaining the procedure for the breath test, the officer closed the cell door at 3:47 a.m. Twenty minutes later, the officer returned and found defendant still on the phone. The officer told defendant that he would "give him another minute or so to complete his phone call, closed the cell, and again checked on him at 4:10 a.m. and found that he was finishing his phone call."
The officer took defendant to another room, began the 15-minute observation period required before administration of a breath test, "conducted the DUII Interview Report[,] and read him the Implied Consent Combined Report in its entirety verbatim." In conducting the DUII interview report, the officer asked defendant "28 questions in multiparts."
Having gone through that procedure, Enz asked defendant if "he'd take a breath test." Defendant did not answer but "just stared at [the officer] and started reading the Implied Consent Combined Report." Enz told him that he would "give him a moment to think about it and that [he would] be asking him *13again when he started [the breathalyzer machine]." At that point, defendant said that he "would like to speak with his attorney before he answered that question," and Enz "explained to [defendant] that he'd already been given ample time to consult with someone for legal advice, both at the scene and at the precinct." "At that point, [Enz asked defendant] if he would take a breath test, to which he said, 'Yes.' " The breath test showed that defendant's blood alcohol content (BAC) was .18.
B. Trial and Appellate Proceedings
The state charged defendant with DUII and reckless driving. Before trial, defendant filed two motions to suppress the statements that he made to Officer Enz in response to the questions on the DUII interview report and any derivative evidence. The first motion contended that Enz had violated Article I, sections 11 and 12, by asking defendant questions from the DUII interview report after he had invoked his right to counsel. Defendant's second motion claimed that defendant's statements were involuntary because Enz repeatedly had disregarded defendant's invocation of his right to counsel.
In response to defendant's motions, the state conceded that asking defendant the questions from the DUII
**128interview report after he invoked his right to counsel violated Article I, section 12. It explained that, as a result, it would not ask Enz at the suppression hearing about either the questions he asked or the answers defendant gave to those questions. Apparently, in the state's view, no more was needed to remedy the Article I, section 12, violation. Additionally, the state argued that it had complied with Article I, section 11, by giving defendant the opportunity to consult with his attorney before deciding whether to take the breath test. The state did not address whether defendant's decision to take the breath test and the resulting test results derived from the conceded Article I, section 12, violation.
In considering the parties' arguments, the trial court focused on defendant's Article I, section 11, right to counsel. It concluded that, because Enz had provided defendant with a reasonable opportunity to consult with counsel before deciding whether to take the breath test, defendant's decision to take the test and the test results were admissible. The court accordingly denied defendant's motions to suppress. Given the trial court's ruling on his suppression motions, defendant agreed to a stipulated facts trial based on the evidence brought out at the suppression hearing. After considering that evidence, the trial court convicted defendant of DUII and reckless driving.
On appeal, defendant challenged the trial court's ruling denying his suppression motions, although his appellate arguments were narrower than his arguments at trial. On appeal, defendant expressly abandoned his argument that Enz had violated his Article I, section 11, right to counsel. He limited his arguments instead to Article I, section 12. Specifically, defendant argued that Enz had violated Article I, section 12, by eliciting his answers to the 28 DUII interview questions after he had invoked his right to counsel and that his consent to take the breath test and the test results should be suppressed because they derived from his answers to those questions. Defendant did not argue on appeal that, once he invoked his Article I, section 12, right to counsel, Enz could not ask him whether he would take a breath test; that is, defendant did not argue that asking **129whether he would take a breath test constituted "interrogation" in violation of his Article I, section 12, right to counsel.
In analyzing defendant's arguments, the Court of Appeals began by noting that it had "unequivocally rejected the proposition that asking a person to take a breath test is 'interrogation' " for the purposes of Article I, section 12. Swan ,
Applying a series of factors identified in State v. Jarnagin ,
II. ISSUES ON REVIEW
On review, defendant argues that his breath test results should be suppressed for two reasons. He argues initially that, once he invoked his right to counsel, no further interrogation could occur without his counsel present and that asking whether he would take a breath test constituted "interrogation" prohibited by Article I, section 12. Additionally, he argues that, even if asking him to take a breath test did not constitute interrogation, his decision to take the breath test and the results of that test were the product of the officer's earlier Article I, section 12, violation and should be suppressed for that reason.
**130Defendant did not raise the first issue-whether asking if he would take a breath test constituted interrogation-in either the trial court or the Court of Appeals, and it is questionable whether he can raise that issue for the first time in this court. However, we need not answer that procedural question to decide this case. Even if the first issue were properly before us and even if Article I, section 12, did not preclude Enz from asking defendant if he would take a breath test, as the Court of Appeals has held, we conclude that defendant's decision to take the breath test and the subsequent test results were the product of the preceding constitutional violation and should have been suppressed for that reason. It follows that any resolution of the first issue that defendant raises on review, even if preserved, would not change the result in this case. We accordingly turn to the single issue that defendant has raised throughout this litigation: whether his decision to take the breath test derived from the immediately preceding Article I, section 12, violation.
In response to that issue, the state advances two separate arguments why the breath test results did not derive from the conceded Article I, section 12, violation. The state's first argument starts from the proposition that "a person lawfully arrested for DUII has no legal right to refuse a breath test administered pursuant to the implied-consent law." It follows, the state concludes, that Enz's administration of the breath test resulted from the operation of the implied-consent law rather than his violation of defendant's Article I, section 12, right to counsel. The state's second argument tracks, in large part, the Court of Appeals' reasoning. Relying on our decision in State v. Delong ,
A. Causal Chain
In deciding the state's second argument, we note, as an initial matter, that the results of a breath test are not themselves testimonial; a breath test is a search of the **131person's breath that reveals a physical fact, the percentage of alcohol in a person's blood. State v. Fish ,
As we did in Delong , we look to the factors set out in Jarnagin in deciding whether the breath test results were admissible because defendant's decision to take the breath test broke the causal chain between the prior Article I, section 12, violation and his breath test results. Specifically, we consider, among other things:
" 'the nature of the violation, the amount of time between the violation and any later statements, whether the suspect remained in custody before making any later statements, subsequent events that may have dissipated the taint of the earlier violation, and the use that the state has made of the unwarned statements.' "
Delong ,
In this case, we begin, as the Court of Appeals did, with the second and third factors-"the amount of time between the violation and any later statements" and "whether the suspect remained in custody before making any later statements." See Jarnagin ,
Not only do the second and third factors suggest that defendant's decision to take the breath test was the product of the immediately preceding Miranda violation, but the fifth factor identified in Jarnagin - "the use that the state has made of the unwarned statements"-provides no reason to reach a different conclusion. As noted above, the record does not disclose the 28 questions that the officer asked defendant after he invoked his right to counsel. More importantly, it does not disclose defendant's answers to those questions.
**133The state bears the burden of production and persuasion to show that defendant's decision to take the breath test was not the *16product of Enz's violation of defendant's Article I, section 12, right to counsel. See State v. Unger ,
The first Jarnagin factor-the nature of the violation-also cuts against the state's argument. The Miranda violation in this case differs from the Miranda violations in Vondehn , Jarnagin , and Delong . In those cases, officers failed to advise suspects of their rights, and in assessing the nature of the violation, we asked whether the failure to warn was egregious or flagrant. For example, we noted that the violation in Jarnagin was not flagrant. As we explained, that case was not one "in which the officers advised defendant of his Miranda rights and then proceeded to question him despite his repeated requests for counsel, as the officers did in [ State v. Foster ,
In this case, by contrast, Enz expressly advised defendant of his Miranda rights and told him that, among other rights, "[h]e ha[d] the right to have an attorney with him while he's being questioned." After being advised of that right, defendant expressly invoked his right to counsel's assistance in responding to Enz's questions. Despite that invocation, Enz then asked defendant 28 questions. Given the state's concession that Enz could not ask those questions, we conclude that the violation was flagrant and repeated. And, as we explained in Unger , the flagrancy of a constitutional violation is relevant in a rights-based suppression analysis because "unlawful and lengthy in-custody questioning is more likely to affect the defendant's decision to consent than more restrained behavior."
We recognize, as we did in Unger , that the question is one of degree and that, in this case, Officer Enz did not otherwise engage in overreaching or overbearing conduct. Moreover, Enz had allowed defendant the opportunity to talk with his lawyer by phone before questioning defendant in derogation of his request for counsel. Although those actions mitigated the effect of Enz's violation, Enz's repeated disregard for defendant's expressed right to counsel "place[d defendant] in a more disadvantaged position, making it easier and more likely for [Enz] to exploit that illegality to obtain consent." Unger ,
*17The remaining factor noted in Jarnagin is whether subsequent events dissipated the taint of the earlier violation. On that issue, we note that defendant had an opportunity to **135speak with his lawyer before Enz questioned him in violation of his rights. After questioning defendant in violation of Article I, section 12, Enz then asked defendant if he would consent to take the breath test. At that point, defendant asked to speak to his lawyer, and Enz denied his request. Far from dissipating the taint of the preceding Article I, section 12, violation, the officer's subsequent denial reinforced it.
It is true, as the state argues, that Enz read defendant the Implied Consent Combined Report "in its entirety verbatim" after defendant answered the questions on the DUII interview report. As noted above, however, the Implied Consent Combined Report is not part of this record. We do not know what the report in its entirety said, although Enz did testify regarding three admonitions contained in the report. Enz testified at the suppression hearing that he warned defendant that, if he refused to take a breath test, he would lose his license to drive, he would be subject to a $650 fine, and "evidence of [his] refusal would be used against him in court." That advice parallels some of the consequences that Oregon statutes require officers to read DUII suspects before asking them to take a breath test. See State v. Moore ,
We held in Moore that advising a DUII suspect of the consequences of refusing to take a breath test did not render the suspect's decision to take the breath test involuntary.
Considering the factors set out in Jarnagin , we are not persuaded by the state's argument that defendant's decision to submit to the breath test in this case was comparable to the defendant's invitation in Delong for the officers to search his car. In Delong , the violation of the defendant's rights was minimal; here, it was flagrant. In Delong , the defendant invited the officers to search his car unprompted by any express request for consent to search.
B. Implied Consent
The state notes that, under the terms of ORS 813.100(1), defendant impliedly consented to take a breath test to determine his BAC by driving on the public highways. It contends that, as a result of that implied consent, defendant had no legal right to refuse to take a breath test when, at a later point, he was arrested for DUII. In the state's view, defendant had only a physical right to refuse to submit to the test. The state reasons that, because defendant had no legal right to refuse a breath test, it is immaterial whether his decision to submit to a breath test was the product of an earlier Article I, section 12, violation.
The state adds that, in making its implied-consent argument, it is not relying on defendant's consent to take a breath test to justify its warrantless seizure and search of his breath. It reasons that that it could seize and search defendant's breath to determine his BAC either as a search incident to arrest under the reasoning in Birchfield v. North Dakota , --- U.S. ----,
The relevant text of the implied-consent statutes is fairly straightforward. ORS 813.100(1) provides that "[a]ny person who operates a motor vehicle upon *** the highways of this state shall be deemed to have given consent, subject to the implied consent law, to a chemical test of the person's breath" to determine the person's BAC if the person is arrested for DUII. ORS 813.100(2) then provides that, if a person who is arrested for DUII "refuses the request of a police officer to submit to the chemical test after the person has been informed of consequences and rights as described in ORS 813.130," "[n]o chemical test of the person's breath *** shall be given under subsection (1) of this section."
**139As we read those two subsections, the fact that a person impliedly consented to a breath test by driving on the public highways does not foreclose that person from later refusing to take a breath test if and when the person is arrested for DUII. Rather, ORS 813.100(2) expressly recognizes that a person arrested for DUII may decide, at the point of arrest, to refuse to submit to a breath test and that the person's refusal limits the state's ability to determine his or her BAC under the implied-consent statutes. Specifically, ORS 813.100(2) provides that, if a person arrested for DUII refuses to submit to a breath test, "[n]o chemical test of the person's breath *** shall be given" under the implied-consent statutes, although the state can always apply for a warrant to determine a suspect's BAC. See State v. Ritz ,
The implied-consent statutes thus provide that, notwithstanding the consent implied by driving on the public highways, a DUII suspect retains a statutory right to refuse to take a breath test at the point of arrest. Our decision in Spencer confirms that reading of the statutory text. In interpreting the implied-consent statutes, Spencer explained that, having impliedly consented to take a breath test by driving on the public highways, a DUII suspect has no legal right to refuse to submit to a breath test.
**140Moreover, this court held in Spencer that, when a suspect's decision to submit to a breath test derives from a violation of his or her Article I, section 11, right to counsel, both the decision and the test results are subject to suppression.
The state, however, presses its argument that our decisions interpreting the implied-consents statutes lead to a different conclusion, and we address that argument briefly. As we understand the state's argument, it relies primarily on statements that this court made in State v. Cabanilla ,
In interpreting the implied-consent statutes, one of the questions that initially divided this court was whether the statutory right to refuse a breath test at the point of arrest should be interpreted as requiring, as a statutory matter, that the suspect actually consent to a breath test. In Scharf , this court concluded that it did. It described the consent to take a breath test implied by driving on the public highways as a "statutory fiction," and it held that the right to refuse a breath test, now codified as ORS 813.100(2), demonstrated a legislative intent to require that a DUII suspect actually consent to a breath test at the point of arrest. 288 Or. at 457-58,,
One year later, a plurality of the court read the implied-consent statutes differently. Newton ,
In the plurality's view, Scharf misread Oregon's implied-consent statutes when it inferred from the statutory ability to refuse a breath test a statutory requirement of actual consent and a corresponding statutory right to a reasonable opportunity to consult with counsel before deciding whether to take a breath test.
"[R]efusal as contemplated by the statute is something other than withholding of consent because consent is legally implied. It is a refusal to comply with the consent which has already been given as a condition of a license to drive.
**142The purpose of a warning of license suspension following a *21refusal is to overcome an unsanctioned refusal by threat instead of force. It is not to reinstate a right to choice, let alone a voluntary and informed choice, but rather to nonforcibly enforce the driver's previous implied consent."
As we read the quoted passage, the plurality relied on the fact that a suspect's consent was "legally implied" to determine that a suspect's ability to refuse a breath test did not require, as a statutory matter, that the suspect actually consent. The point, however, was not that a DUII suspect has no statutory right to refuse a breath test. ORS 813.100(2) clearly recognizes that right if and when the suspect is arrested for DUII. Nor was the point of the passage to say that a suspect's statutory decision to refuse a breath test is immaterial. ORS 813.100(2) prohibits the state from obtaining a breath test under the implied-consent statutes if the suspect refuses. Indeed, the plurality expressly recognized that the consent implied from driving on public highways does not provide an independent ground for obtaining a DUII suspect's BAC.
The final case in the trilogy is Spencer . In that case, the court reexamined the implied consent statutes in light of the conflicting opinions in Scharf and Newton .
"We agree with the Newton plurality that the statute's references to a driver's 'refusal' do not evince a legislative concern that the driver make a voluntary and fully informed decision whether to submit to the test. Consent being implied by law, a driver may not legally refuse. A driver, **143however, can physically refuse to submit, and the implied consent law, recognizing that practical reality, forbids the use of physical force to compel submission. The history and development of the implied consent law, as outlined by the dissent in Scharf and by the plurality in Newton , suggest that the advice to be given an arrestee was intended to provide an additional incentive, short of physical compulsion, to induce submission."
Spencer ,
Spencer accordingly agreed with the Newton plurality that, for the purposes of the implied-consent statutes, a DUII suspect's consent to take a breath test is legally implied by driving on the public highways and that the implied-consent statutes do not themselves require either actual consent or the opportunity to consult with counsel before deciding whether to submit to a breath test, as Scharf had held. However, Spencer recognized that, under the implied-consent statutes, a suspect may physically refuse to take a breath test, and it held that Article I, section 11, gives the suspect "the right upon request to a reasonable opportunity to obtain legal advice before deciding whether to submit to a breath test."
*22At first blush, one sentence in Spencer 's description of the implied-consent statutes appears to support the state's argument: "Consent being implied by law, a driver may not legally refuse."
For those reasons, we decline to put too much weight on Spencer 's one-sentence summary of the implied-consent statutes. Rather, we recognize, as both the text of the implied-consent statutes states and the holding in Spencer establishes, that a DUII suspect's decision to submit to a breath test is a necessary statutory predicate to obtaining a breath test under the implied-consent statutes and that a driver retains a statutorily recognized right to decide, at the point of arrest, whether to cooperate with the state and take a breath test. In short, Spencer and Newton , properly understood, do not support the state's argument.
That leaves this court's decision in Cabanilla , on which the state primarily relies. The difficulty for the state is that Cabanilla involved an interpretation of the word "informed" in ORS 813.130. 351 Or. at 626, 631-32,
The question that the court answered in Cabanilla - whether, as a statutory matter, a suspect's decision to refuse a breath test is admissible in a criminal proceeding only if it is informed-is different from the question presented here-whether a decision to submit to a breath test that is the product of a constitutional violation should be suppressed. We recognize that some of the statements in Cabanilla , viewed in isolation, could be interpreted as supporting the position that the state takes here. However, reading those statements in light of the statutory question that the court decided in Cabanilla and also in light of this court's holding in Spencer , we conclude that the implied-consent statutes do not require the admission of the breath test results when a DUII suspect's decision to take the breath test is the product of a violation of his or her Article I, section 12, right to counsel. The premise of the state's alternative argument fails.
The state raises one other issue in support of its implied-consent argument that requires a response. It argues that excluding the results of a breath test overcorrects for the Article I, section 12, violation. The state reasons *23that "[a] defendant has no legal right, constitutional or otherwise, to withhold compliance with a breath test administered under the implied-consent law. Thus, exclusion of the implied-consent breath test evidence would not preserve rights 'to the same extent as if the government's officers had stayed within the law.' " (Quoting Vondehn ,
Perhaps the state is arguing that the implied-consent statutes put a DUII suspect to a choice (submit to a breath test or have evidence of your refusal be admitted against you in a DUII prosecution) and that excluding a suspect's breath test results overcorrects for that violation by excusing the suspect from having to make that statutory choice. To the extent that is the state's point, it assumes that the state constitutionally can put a defendant to that choice, a question that this court has not yet answered. Beyond that, even if the implied-consent statutes can put a defendant to that choice consistent with the constitution, the state does not explain how its loss of a statutory benefit somehow out-weighs the vindication of a defendant's constitutional right. If our only choice in fashioning a remedy for the violation of a defendant's Article I, section 12, right is either to undercorrect for the violation of the defendant's constitutional right or to overcorrect for that violation by denying the state a statutorily created benefit, Spencer makes clear that the state's loss of a statutory benefit is a necessary consequence of remedying the state's violation of the defendant's constitutional right. Following Spencer and Durbin , we conclude that the breath test results should have been suppressed as a product of the violation of defendant's Article I, section 12, right to counsel.
III. CONCLUSION
For the reasons explained above, defendant's motion to suppress the breath test results as a product of the officer's Article I, section 12, violation should have been granted. Additionally, defendant plausibly argues on review that the admission of those test results affected both his DUII conviction and his reckless driving conviction, and the state does not argue otherwise. We accordingly reverse the judgment as to both convictions and remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings.
The decision of the Court of Appeals is reversed. The judgment of the circuit court is reversed, and the case is remanded to the circuit court for further proceedings.
We take the facts from the evidence admitted at the suppression hearing and state the facts consistently with the trial court's ruling.
At some point during this process, Enz told defendant that he did not have to answer all the interview questions if he did not want to do so.
The record discloses that the questions were "in part about the vehicle" and "about the driving." It also discloses that defendant declined to answer one of the questions. We note that, in a memorandum that defendant filed in support of one of his suppression motions, he identified a few of the questions asked but none of the answers given. In these circumstances, we do not rely on the factual assertions in the memorandum, which were neither offered nor admitted as evidence in the suppression hearing.
The Implied Consent Combined Report is an administrative form prepared by the Department of Transportation to comply with multiple statutory directives. See State v. Rafeh ,
Even though Enz's questions and defendant's answers would not have been admissible in defendant's criminal trial, they were admissible in the suppression hearing and can be dispositive in deciding whether his decision to take the breath test was the product of the prior illegality. See Delong ,
The state argues that Enz's violation was the result of the officer's good-faith but mistaken belief that defendant's right to counsel derived solely from Article I, section 11. That may be true. However, we suppress evidence that derives from a constitutional violation to return a defendant to the position that he or she would have been in had the officer stayed within constitutional bounds. The officer's good faith has no bearing on that analysis.
In Moore , the officer advised the defendant that "evidence of a refusal *** may be offered against [him]."
In Delong , the officers asked the defendant if he had anything in his car that they should be concerned about.
In stating that it is not relying on defendant's consent to justify a seizure and search of his breath, the state's argument assumes that neither implied consent nor defendant's decision to submit to a breath test at the point of arrest constituted sufficient consent to constitutionally justify a warrantless seizure and search of defendant's breath. Presumably for that reason, the state notes that its warrantless seizure and search of defendant's breath can be justified either as a search incident to an arrest or under the exigent circumstances doctrine. The state does not appear to argue that it is relying on either of those exceptions to the warrant requirement as a basis for obtaining defendant's BAC independently of his implied consent to take a breath test. However, to the extent the state is relying on those exceptions as independent bases for obtaining defendant's BAC, we cannot say that the record regarding exigent circumstances would be materially the same if that issue had been raised in the trial court, see Outdoor Media Dimensions, Inc. v. State of Oregon ,
The conduct that gave rise to this case occurred on February 13, 2013. On July 25, 2013, the legislature added the following subsection to ORS 813.100 :
"Nothing in this section [ORS 813.100 ] precludes a police officer from obtaining a chemical test of the person's breath or blood through any lawful means for use as evidence in a criminal or civil proceeding including, but not limited to, obtaining a search warrant."
Or. Laws 2013, ch. 642, § 1, codified as ORS 813.100(5). By its terms, the 2013 act does not apply to the conduct in this case. Or. Laws 2013, ch. 642, § 3. We express no opinion on how ORS 813.100(5) would apply in future cases.
The plurality explained that, as states were enacting implied-consent statutes, the United States Supreme Court made clear that blood tests for BAC did not implicate the due process concerns identified in Rochin . Newton ,
The plurality reasoned: "The warrant requirement may be excused if there is consent. By this, we mean actual consent. Defendant's statutorily implied consent cannot excuse an otherwise unconstitutional seizure." Newton ,
Spencer had no occasion to decide whether either the consent implied from driving on the public highways or the decision to submit to a breath test at the point of arrest was sufficient in that case to justify a warrantless seizure and search of the defendant's breath. Rather, it held that the test results in that case derived from a violation of the defendant's Article I, section 11, right to counsel and should be suppressed for that reason.
Factually, the defendant's argument turned on the fact that the officer read the adverse consequences to him in English, which the defendant did not understand.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE of Oregon, on Review v. Andrew A. SWAN, on Review.
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