Approximately eighteen months ago I wrote here about the decision of the Fort Worth Court of Appeals to uphold a trial judge’s ruling that the method by which a Driving While Intoxicated Suspect’s blood was drawn at a police station was constitutionally unreasonable. Because the Court ruled that the manner of the blood draw violated the Fourth Amendnment to the U.S. Constitution’s requirement of reasonableness, the Court agreed with the lower Court decision to exclude the results of the blood test from evidence.
The State sought appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and recently the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the Fort Worth Court of Appeals. The case is known as State v. Johnson, and in Johnson the Court held that the blood draw was constitutionally reasonable, and appeared to go so far as to indicate that it will presume the constitutional reasonableness of venipuncture blood draws in the future.
What does this mean for the future of DWI enforcement in practical terms? I would anticipate that many police agencies will develop programs to draw blood at the station and may arrange to have officers themselves trained to draw blood, as opposed to medical professionals. I read the Johnson case to “green light” these programs.
