Legal Features

Missouri v. McNeely

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Rutherford Institute has filed an amicus curiae brief in the case of Missouri v. McNeely, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to prohibit law enforcement officers from forcibly extracting blood from individuals suspected of drunk driving without first obtaining a warrant. The Institute’s brief was filed on behalf of Tyler McNeely, who was forced to give a blood sample after being arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. Although McNeely refused to submit to a blood test, the arresting officer ordered hospital personnel to extract his blood anyway and test it for alcohol levels. In appealing the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, the State of Missouri is seeking to overturn the Missouri Supreme Court’s order to suppress the results of the blood-alcohol test. In weighing in on the case, Rutherford Institute attorneys argue that the state’s interests in ensuring public safety and discouraging drunk driving could have been realized in a manner that secured the desired blood alcohol evidence while at the same time protecting McNeely’s constitutional rights in keeping with the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement and prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.

Click Here to Read The Rutherford Institute's amicus curiae brief in Missouri v. McNeely.