A recent decision by the Kansas Court of Appeals, not final yet, holds that the it is irrelevant whether the police had any reason to stop you when it comes to the hearing about your driver’s license.
When a driver is accused of failing a breath or blood test, or refusing one, there are 2 different cases that are initiated. One is the criminal case, in which the person is charged with a DUI, the second is a case against the driver’s license.
Normally, the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution mandates that all US citizens have the right to be free from unreasonable seizures and searches. When a car is stopped the driver is seized. So, police have to have reasonable suspicion that a crime has occurred or is occurring before they can stop you. That is the American way. Or, it was. Now there is another DUI exception to the Constitution. According to this new case, the police do not need to have had a reason to stop your car. They can stop you just for the fun of it, or because you are Black, or a Muslim, or a teenager, or a woman, or for any other reason that they like and it does not make a difference. You cannot raise the fact that you did not commit any traffic offense that would warrant a stop of your car. Whether your seizure was lawful and Constitutional is no longer relevant.
In my opinion it is a sad day when a court of law decrees that the United States Constitution is not relevant to a judicial proceeding. This is another fundamental right that has been sacrificed upon the altar of DUI. Perhaps the Kansas Supreme Court will reverse this, but I doubt it. My hope is that one day the people of Kansas, and the USA, will say “enough” to the continued erosion of the freedoms that our country fought so hard to establish and maintain. Until then it appears that the Constitution will continue to get thrown out with the DUI bathwater.