Breathing the Constitution into the Breath Test
State v. Won (HSC November 25, 2015) Background. Yong Shik Won was pulled over for speeding. The officers suspected that he had been drinking so they ordered him out of the car. Won submitted to field sobriety tests. The officers arrested him for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of an intoxicant. They took him to the police station. There, they handed him a form and read it to him. The form stated that any person operating a vehicle on a public road is deemed to have given consent to a test for purposes of determining alcohol concentration. The form also read that Won he could refuse to take a test but “if you refuse to submit to a breath, blood, or urine test, you shall be subject to up to thirty days imprisonment and/or fine up to $1,000.” Won picked a breath test. The police had him blow into a machine called the Intoxilyzer 8000. His BAC came to 0.17 grams of alcohol per two hundred ten liters of breath (which is over the limit of 0.08). Won moved to sup...