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Supreme Court: Cops Can Draw Blood From Unconscious Drivers

In a 5-4 opinion, the court upheld Wisconsin’s law that any person driving on public roads is consenting to a blood alcohol test.

The Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing police to administer blood alcohol tests to unconscious subjects without first obtaining a warrant. In a 5-4 decision, the court upheld Wisconsin’s law that maintains any person who drives on public roads is consenting to a blood alcohol test, NBC News reports. Justice Stephen Breyer joined the conservatives, and Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the liberals. The court had already held that police may administer a breath test without a warrant. So the only question was whether, under “exigent circumstances,” police could also administer a blood test without first obtaining a warrant. The case, Mitchell v. Wisconsin, stemmed from a 2013 incident in which a man was charged with drunk driving after police conducted a blood test that indicated an alcohol level of .22, significantly above Wisconsin’s legal limit of .08.