Breath Tests

By authorizing “preliminary” breath tests of California motorists after “administrative detentions,” the attorney general’s office has placed one more arrow in the quiver of law enforcement. Simultaneously, and without a moment’s blink, our right against unreasonable searches and seizures has once again been eroded on semantic subtleties and transparent nuances.

While drinking drivers undoubtably exact a toll in human lives and property damage on our state’s highways, compromising everyone’s freedom to traverse without arbitrary suspicion seems much too high a price to pay. Even though sobriety checkpoint stops are “brief” and preliminary breath tests do not require the driver to do anything, police scrutiny without justifiable cause leaves our constitutionally declared rights in shambles.

ALVIN M. HALL, Los Angeles