I’ve ranted before about the fight against drunk driving expanding into a de-facto fight against drinking at all, with due process and the Fourth Amendment as collateral damage.

Today I ran across a Reason magazine Hit and Run posting calling attention to four DWI-related abuses of police power and presumption of guilt. Of particular note to me is the first item:

As more and more states are now allowing police officers to forcibly extract blood of DWI suspects, the New Jersey State Supreme Court recently took the practice a step further. The court ruled that not only may police forcibly draw blood, they may use extreme force in doing so, including force that inflicts permanent physical damage on the suspect.

In America today, if you happen to be driving in the wrong state, the following can happen with the blessing of the state and federal Courts Supreme:

• Stopped by police at a DUI checkpoint with no probable cause
• Subjected to a sobriety test without consent
• Subjected to a Breath-a-Lyzer test without consent or access to counsel
• Forced to submit a blood sample for blood alcohol analysis, taken by a police officer with no medical training
• Permanently physically injured by police offers forcibly extracting a blood sample should you refuse to provide one willingly

If stopping people who drink and drive is a sufficiently compelling state interest as to justify the above wholesale disregard for the Constitution, what steps would the high courts declare acceptable in the name of the War on Terror, the War on Drugs, or National Security? What does it say about us as citizens that we allow this sort of thing to happen? At what point will a sufficient number of us say ‘Enough!’ and push back against those meddling tyrants who regard free and individually responsible adults with such disdain?