Court Opinion

ID: 9732660
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 16:30:21.918975+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:23:28.355521
License: Public Domain

Johnson, J.,
dissenting. In the face of a statutory provision explicitly granting the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles exclusive authority to administer and implement Vermont’s statutory scheme governing the suspension and reinstatement of driver’s licenses, the majority holds today that trial judges may withhold driving privileges beyond the statutorily designated time periods on an ad hoc basis as a condition of probation in criminal cases. Because this holding allows trial judges to contradict or ignore altogether the Commissioner’s authority in this area, and to disregard the numerous and detailed statutory procedures that have been established to provide consistent and effective enforcement of sanctions for driving under the influence (DUI), I dissent.
In 1998, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 185 (Act 117), which contained numerous provisions intended to render Vermont’s DUI laws more consistent and effective, and especially to address the problem of recidivism. Among these new provisions was 23 V.S.A. § 1201c:
Notwithstanding any direction or order from any person or entity to the contrary, the commissioner of motor vehicles shall calculate, in accordance with applicable statutes and rules, the duration of suspensions, whether and when revocations, suspensions and reinstatements shall occur, and all other required actions and calculations.
In language that could not be more plain, § 1201c gives the Commissioner of Motor Vehicles exclusive authority to decide, in *133accordance with applicable statutes, whether, when and for how long to suspend, revoke or reinstate driver’s licenses. The Commissioner retains authority over the duration of suspension and the timing of reinstatement “[njotwithstanding any direction or order from any person or entity to the contrary.” This latter phrase can only be referring to a contrary “direction or order” from a judge or court, which is precisely what happened here.
When defendant was convicted of DUI, the court was free to fine him and impose a jail sentence within the range provided in the penalty statutes. The court was also free to impose reasonable probation conditions. The court was not free, however, to usurp the Commissioner’s exclusive authority to determine whether, when, and for how long to suspend defendant’s driving privileges.
Under Vermont law, when a person is convicted of DUI, the district court “shall forward the conviction report forthwith to the commissioner of motor vehicles. The commissioner shall immediately suspend the person’s operating license ... for a period of 90 days and until the defendant complies with” the conditions of reinstatement contained in 23 V.S.A. § 1209a. 23 V.S.A. § 1206(a).* “In cases resulting in a fatality, the period of suspension shall be one year and until the defendant complies with section 1209a.” 23 V.S.A. § 1206(b) (emphasis added). Similarly, if a fatality occurs as the result of careless and negligent operation of a motor vehicle, “the suspension shall be for a period of one year.” 23 V.S.A. § 2506 (emphasis added). The Commissioner may not reinstate the license of a person convicted of DUI until that person has satisfied the detailed and specific criteria for reinstatement, including education and therapy, contained in § 1209a. In short, a DUI conviction triggers the duty of the court to make a report to the Commissioner, who is then charged with the task of suspending and eventually reinstating the defendant’s license, if and when the offender complies with the treatment program, for the statutorily mandated periods and in accordance with statutory procedures.
Apart from the plain meaning of § 1201c and the other statutes cited above, the Legislature’s intent to grant the Commissioner exclusive authority over the suspension and restoration of driver’s licenses is reinforced by the legislative history of Senate Bill 185, *134which reveals extreme frustration with the ineffectiveness of prior DUI legislation in reducing the occurrence of DUI and the rate of DUI recidivism. Of primary concern was the disjuncture between the courts’ treatment of DUI offenses and the Department of Motor Vehicle’s treatment of license suspension issues. As Senator Sears explained, everyone in the system was receiving mixed messages, creating “a complicated [situation in which] citizens are told one thing by the court and a different thing by the DMV That’s not healthy in terms of treatment as well as instruction of the law.” Senate Judiciary Committee, January 29, 1997.
The measures enacted in Senate Bill 185 were aimed at (1) reducing inconsistencies in judicial sanctions; (2) allaying public confusion and resentment concerning the length of license suspensions and the requirements for reinstatement; and (3) creating and enforcing consistent procedures for suspending, revoking, and reinstating licenses and for treating offenders so that reliable data on the effectiveness of these measures could be obtained. Section 1209a was amended to establish detailed requirements for reinstatement based on screening for therapy, participation in education and counseling programs, abstinence from drug and alcohol consumption under certain circumstances, and judicial review of decisions by designated counselors. Thus, under the current statutory scheme, license suspension, revocation and reinstatement are intimately intertwined with procedures for mandating treatment and counseling to prevent DUI recidivism.
A key component to achieving the Legislature’s stated goals was vesting the Commissioner with exclusive jurisdiction over the regulation of operating privileges. Accordingly, § 1201c stands as a central part of the Legislature’s efforts to improve the consistency and efficacy of Vermont’s DUI laws.
Faced with the plain language of § 1201c and the overwhelming evidence of the Legislature’s intent to give the Commissioner exclusive authority over suspending and reinstating licenses, the majority can point only to the claimed “critical distinction” between prohibiting one from driving and taking away one’s driver’s license. With all due respect, I believe that invoking this empty distinction exalts form over substance. The primary entitlement bestowed by a driver’s license is the right to lawfully operate a motor vehicle. In effect, there is no difference between revoking one’s license and preventing one from driving.
Nor am I convinced that the purpose behind suspending operating privileges as a condition of probation is significantly different from *135the purpose behind license suspension under Vermont law. Both serve to protect public safety. The majority emphasizes the rehabilitative purpose of probation conditions, but that purpose is also manifest inthe detailed criteria contained in § 1209, which conditions reinstatement on DUI offenders participating in education and therapy programs. See 1997, No. 117, Finding 7 (DUI offenders often have been charged with other offenses, meaning that correctional and treatment services must be geared toward antisocial behavior dynamics).
In order to distinguish between the power of the Commissioner and that of the court, the majority states that the court’s order does not prevent defendant from obtaining an operator’s license. I doubt that defendant will find solace in learning that the challenged probation condition merely prevents him from driving and does not either require him to surrender his driver’s license or prevent him from paying his fee and obtaining a new license — albeit one that will not allow him to drive — once the statutory suspension period has expired. I cannot imagine why someone would want to pay $20 periodically for a useless license, see 23 V.S.A. § 608(a), when a state identification card is available for a one-time fee of $5, see 7 V.S.A. § 601.
More importantly, the majority’s statement only underscores the problems it has created. Under the majority’s rationale, defendant can display the universal symbol of entitlement to drive at the same time that he is legally prohibited from driving. For example, he can drive through a DUI roadblock, assuming he is sober at the time, with the police relying on his current license. In my judgment, the trial court’s actions would be much more effective if it prohibited defendant from holding a license, but that would eliminate the artificial distinction the majority uses to uphold the probation order.
Unlike the majority, I do not believe that the district court’s general power to impose reasonable probation conditions overrides the Legislature’s detailed statutory scheme governing license suspension and restoration. I agree with the majority that the separation-of-powers doctrine does not contemplate a hermetic seal between each branch of government, and that criminal sentencing is a shared responsibility among the separate branches of government. But in this particular area, the Legislature has spoken. While the courts may impose lesser restrictions on operating privileges (for instance, restricting a defendant’s driving privileges to certain times of the day or for certain purposes such as work), only the Commissioner has the *136authority under the statutory framework to suspend, revoke, or reinstate the right to drive pursuant to specific statutory mandates.
Other jurisdictions agree that where there are specific, well-defined statutory procedures for the suspension of licenses, a condition of probation resulting in a de facto license suspension is improper. See Sheppard v. State, 685 A.2d 1176, 1177-78 (Md. 1996) (examining cases). In Sheppard, the Maryland Supreme Court acknowledged that some jurisdictions have upheld probation conditions forbidding defendants from driving “by finding express legislative delegation of authority to a sentencing judge to restrict driving privileges.” Id. at 1177. But the court reasoned that the Maryland legislature’s provision of specific mechanisms and safeguards for reinstatement of suspended licenses delegated exclusive authority over suspension of driving privileges to the administrative agency specifically charged with that duty, and not with the trial courts. See id. at 1180-81.
The same rationale should apply in Vermont. Vermont law sets forth well-defined procedures for suspending and reinstating driver’s licenses, and further gives the Commissioner exclusive authority to implement those procedures. Allowing judges to devise ad hoc probation conditions that amount to de facto suspensions threatens the integrity of this statutory scheme. The majority suggests that the challenged condition was reasonable, but a reasonableness inquiry is irrelevant because it presupposes the authority of the court to impose such a condition. See City of Independence v. Tector, 688 N.E.2d 276, 278 (Ohio Ct. App. 1996). When there is a detailed statutory scheme delegating regulation of procedures to an administrative agency, the general judicial power to impose reasonable probation conditions is limited. Accordingly, I would strike the challenged condition.
The tragic consequences of defendant’s reckless conduct may suggest to some that the trial court should be allowed unlimited latitude in fashioning probation conditions to control his future behavior, and that defendant “deserves” any and all sanctions the court might impose, including a potential thirty-year de facto suspension of his driver’s license. The issue in this case, however, is not whether the challenged probation condition was reasonable, but rather whether the district court has the authority to impose its own term of license suspension on defendant when the Legislature, precisely because judges were imposing inconsistent sanctions and thus undermining the effectiveness of Vermont’s DUI laws, explicitly *137and emphatically granted the Commissioner exclusive jurisdiction over license suspension, revocation and reinstatement.
I am authorized to say that Justice Dooley joins in this dissent.

A second DUI conviction compels the Commissioner to impose an 18-month suspension, and a third or subsequent conviction results in revocation for life. See 23 V.S.A. § 1208.