U.S. Supreme Ct - June 23, 2016

by: Aalvarez • June 23, 2016 • no comments

DUII Blood Draws Require a Warrant or Exigency

Under the Fourth Amendment, obtaining a blood draw in a DUII investigation requires a search warrant or an exception to the warrant requirement beyond the search incident to arrest exception to the warrant requirement. Although states may punish motorists for a refusal to submit to a breath test based on legally implied consent laws, states may not criminally punish motorists for reviewing to submit to a breath test.

The Armed Career Criminal Act (ACCA) imposes a 15-year mandatory minimum sentence on a defendant convicted of being a felon in pos- session of a firearm who also has three prior state or federal convic- tions “for a violent felony,” including “burglary, arson, or extortion.” 18 U. S. C. §§924(e)(1), (e)(2)(B)(ii). To determine whether a prior conviction is for one of those listed crimes, courts apply the “categori- cal approach”—they ask whether the elements of the offense forming the basis for the conviction sufficiently match the elements of the ge- neric (or commonly understood) version of the enumerated crime. See Taylor v. United States, 495 U. S. 575, 600–601. “Elements” are the constituent parts of a crime’s legal definition, which must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt to sustain a conviction; they are distinct from “facts,” which are mere real-world things—extraneous to the crime’s legal requirements and thus ignored by the categorical approach.