Schoon v. North Dakota Department of Transportation

Summary

The North Dakota Supreme Court reversed the suspension of Tre Thomas Schoon's driving privileges because the arresting officer failed to provide the complete implied consent advisory required by N.D.C.C. § 39-20-01(3)(a). The court held that, under subsection 3(b), the blood-test results were inadmissible despite the effect of Birchfield v. North Dakota, because Birchfield did not invalidate the statutory advisory or authorize officers to omit portions of it. The court ordered the Department of Transportation to reinstate Schoon's driving privileges.

Holdings

1. N.D.C.C. § 39-20-01(3)(b) strictly requires the officer to communicate all information required by § 39-20-01(3)(a) before the chemical-test result is admissible in an administrative proceeding. Because Deputy Alm omitted the required criminal-penalty warning, Schoon's blood-test result was inadmissible.
2. Birchfield did not facially invalidate N.D.C.C. § 39-20-01(3) or implicitly abrogate the statutory requirement that the complete advisory be given. Birchfield invalidated criminal punishment for refusing a warrantless blood test, but it did not eliminate the separate state-law evidentiary consequence for failure to provide the required advisory.
3. The State may not omit a portion of the statutory advisory to avoid a potential as-applied constitutional challenge or to remove a statutory barrier to admission of its evidence. The admissibility statute must be applied as written.

Questions Presented

1. Whether N.D.C.C. § 39-20-01(3)(b) requires exclusion of a chemical-test result when the officer fails to provide all information required by the implied-consent advisory in § 39-20-01(3)(a).
2. Whether Birchfield v. North Dakota implicitly abrogated or rendered unconstitutional the statutory advisory and its admissibility consequence as applied to a warrantless blood-test request.
3. Whether the State could avoid the statutory inadmissibility consequence by permitting the officer to omit the portion of the advisory concerning criminal penalties for refusal to submit to a blood test.

Disposition

reversed