High Court Clears Way for Suit Over Irvine Police’s Blood Tests

The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for a lawsuit against the city of Irvine and its police officers for allegedly forcing drunk-driving suspects to take a blood test.

Motorists who are suspected of being drunk must take a test. But under California law, the suspect “has the choice of whether the test shall be of his or her blood, breath or urine.” Officers are obliged to tell motorists of their options.

However, two Orange County lawyers, Jeffrey Wilens of Irvine and Barry Simons of Laguna Beach, heard from a series of clients who said they were not told of the option when they were arrested by police in Irvine.

“It is a chronic complaint. They are made to take a blood test,” Wilens said of his clients.

About 75% of the suspected drunk drivers in Irvine end up taking a blood test, compared to 33% elsewhere in the state, he said.

Based on the individual complaints and the statistics, the lawyers brought a suit against the city contending its officers were violating motorists’ constitutional rights. Wilens suggested some prosecutors and Police Department officials were insisting on blood tests in the belief that blood evidence was seen as the most reliable in court.

In May, the motorists who filed the complaint won a preliminary victory from the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The 4th Amendment forbids “unreasonable searches and seizures” by public officials, and it is unreasonable to force motorists to undergo a blood test whenever other valid options are available, the appeals court said.

The city appealed to the Supreme Court, insisting the ruling will “significantly undercut law enforcement’s ability to fight drunk driving.”

Noting its liberal reputation, the city’s lawyers said the 9th circuit is “is the only one which gives a drunk driver control over producing the evidence necessary to convict him.”

But without a dissenting vote, the high court justices rejected the appeal in Irvine vs. Nelson, 98-163, and sent the case back to a trial judge in Santa Ana.