In the recent Supreme Court decision, Missouri v. McNeely, it was decided whether police officers should be required to get a search warrant before making a DWI suspect submit to a blood test. The Court proposed that police must at least attempt to get a warrant before forcing a DWI suspect to submit to a blood test. The argument espoused that under the exigent circumstances exception to the search warrant requirement, police should not have to get a warrant because evidence of alcohol in a person’s blood disappears quickly.
However, the Court was not so easily persuaded, and they determined that this justification was not enough to waive the warrant requirement. Police must try to get a warrant if they can reasonably do so before taking a person’s blood. The Court reasoned that the question of whether a warrant is required will be judged on a case-by-case basis depending on whether a police officer was reasonably able to get a warrant before taking blood.
