Court Opinion

ID: 9704215
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 00:27:00.081416+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:16:18.190356
License: Public Domain

CONCURRING AND DISSENTING OPINION BY
KLEIN, J.:
¶ 1 While I join in the thorough and scholarly opinion in the Jeffrey Beshore and Jan L. Neufeld cases, I believe the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision in Commonwealth v. Barud, 545 Pa. 297, 681 A.2d 162 (1996), requires reversal of the conviction of Paul R. Imes. Therefore, while I join in the Beshore and Neufeld part of the majority opinion, I am compelled to dissent in the Imes case.
¶ 2 The cogent argument of the majority could logically be considered the law of Pennsylvania, providing that it is constitutional to make it a criminal offense for anyone to drive after drinking enough so that the driver’s blood alcohol rises above the stated limit within two hours, whether or not the person is capable of safe driving before the alcohol takes effect and stops driving after becoming impaired. Because of the dangers of driving while drunk, it could be considered within the constitutional power of the legislature to draft a statute the way it has.
¶ 3 It must be recognized that it is possible for one to drink, still be below the legal limit while driving for some time after consuming the last drink, but have a high blood alcohol content (BAC) and be unable to safely drive if tested two hours later. Most courts have determined that it does not matter that a person’s blood alcohol is far below the legal limit at the time of driving and that the person can drive safely if the person’s blood alcohol reaches or exceeds the statutory limit within a certain *1144time period after that person drove. The legislature has the power to make sure those who drink do not drive and to avoid the arguments that at the time of driving the driver was not yet legally impaired. However, that is not what the Pennsylvania Supreme Court said in Barud.
¶ 4 The key language of the Barud Court is the following:
Because § 3731(a)(5) unnecessarily encompasses both lawful and unlawful conduct; fails to provide a reasonable standard by which a person may gauge then-conduct; encourages arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement; and fails to require proof that a person’s BAC actually exceeded the legal limit at the time of driving;, we conclude that 75 Pa.C.S. § 3731(a)(5) is unconstitutional.
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Indeed, the most glaring deficiency of § 3731(a)(5) is that the statute completely fails to require any proof that the accused’s blood alcohol level actually exceeded the legal limit at the time of driving. Rather, the statute criminalizes a blood alcohol level in excess of the legal limit up to three hours after the last instance in which the person operated a motor vehicle and without any regard for the level of intoxication at the time of operation. Thus, a person may be prosecuted under § 3731(a)(5) even though his or her blood alcohol level did not actually rise above the legal limit of .10% until after the last instance in which he or she drove. Accordingly, because we find that § 3731(a)(5) clearly, palpably and plainly violates both the Constitutions of the United States and of this Commonwealth, the order of the trial court is hereby affirmed.
681 A.2d at 163, 166-67. (emphasis original).
¶ 5 This Court distinguished Barud in Commonwealth v. Thur, 906 A.2d 552 (Pa.Super.2006), based on the difference between the old section 3731(a)(5) discussed in Barud and the new statute in effect in this case, section 3802(c). Old section 3731(a)(5) penalized driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.10% or greater when a sample was obtained within three hours after the person drove. Section 3802(c) provides that it is an offense if a person drinks enough alcohol so that the BAC is above the statutory limit4 within two hours of the time the person drove.5
¶ 6 I believe this is a distinction without a difference. Under the old act, if a person drove within three hours of a test showing his or her blood alcohol exceeded .10%, he or she committed a crime. This was held to be unconstitutional under the Pennsylvania and United States Constitutions because the person could have been driving legally and become impaired later. I believe it rivals the Sophists to say that under the old statute it was illegal to drive with a BAC over the 0.10% limit, while now it is only illegal to drive if you later are tested over the limit, so the new DUI law does not punish legal driving.
*1145¶ 7 That position seems to assume that under the old statute there was a “legal limit” when driving with a BAC of 0.10% while now there is no legal limit when driving and the only “illegal” limit relates to the BAC in the test when taken later. A reasonable interpretation is that the Band court held that to comport with due process, there must be a showing that the driver could not safely drive with the amount of alcohol in his bloodstream when he or she was driving, even if the BAC was higher later. Under either statute, if you have a couple of drinks and drive home still sober with a very low blood alcohol, you are doing nothing to endanger the community and should be said to drive “legally.”
¶ 8 I have no quarrel with the majority’s position that it makes more constitutional sense to say that because of the risk, the legislature could ban driving after drinking any alcohol. Many other jurisdictions have taken that position. But the Pennsylvania Supreme Court did not. The fair import of Band is that if one is in perfect control of a vehicle when driving and would not show a significantly increased BAC level if tested while driving, it is unconstitutional to criminalize that behavior even if the BAC rises later.
¶ 9 I am not alone in construing Band to mean that it is unconstitutional to make it a crime if when driving the person had not exceeded the legal BAC limit. Several other courts, while rejecting the constitutional challenge to similar provisions, have said that Band must be read to mean that unless the blood test has a connection to the time the person was driving it is unconstitutional to impose a criminal sanction.
¶ 10 In State v. Crediford, 130 Wash.2d 747, 927 P.2d 1129 (1996), the Supreme Court of Washington, in an en banc decision, upheld the constitutionality of a provision making it an offense to drive if “the person has, within two hours after driving, an alcohol concentration of 0.10 or higher ...” Id. at 1132. Thus, the framework is similar to the present Pennsylvania law. The Washington Supreme Court took specific pains, not to distinguish Band, but to say “we respectfully disagree with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court insofar as it reasoned that ‘the most glaring [constitutional] deficiency’ in that state’s statute creating a ‘three-hour rule’ that is analogous to the ‘two-hour rule’ in [Washington’s statute] was ‘that the statute completely fails to require any proof that the accused’s blood alcohol level actually exceeded the legal limit [of 0.10 percent] at the time of driving.” Id. at 1134, n. 4. The Washington . Supreme Court seems to believe that the constitutional deficiency found by the Band Court is that the statute punishes someone who could be perfectly capable of driving at the time of driving.
¶ 11 The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington reached the same result and read Band the same way in U.S. v. Skinner, 973 F.Supp. 975 (W.D.Wash.1997). That Court referred to the appellants’ arguments that the “two-hour” rule exceeded the legitimate police powers of the state, created an impermissible mandatory presumption, and was void for vagueness. Before rejecting appellants’ claims the Court recognized that “a few of these arguments have been accepted by at least one state court.” (citing Band, supra).
¶ 12 The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed its statute that made it a crime to have a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.10 or greater as measured within three hours of driving in Bohannon v. State, 269 Ga. 130, 497 S.E.2d 552 (1998). Here, as well, the appellant made the argument that the statute violated due process and was unconstitutional because it was not reason*1146ably related to a state interest, was too vague, was overbroad because it criminalizes constitutionally protected activity, and creates a burden-shifting presumption. In rejecting those arguments, the Georgia Supreme Court noted that Bohannon relied on Barud and specifically said that it found the Barud decision “unpersuasive.” Id. at 556.
¶ 13 The Supreme Court of Nevada had the same interpretation of Barud in Sereika v. State, 114 Nev. 142, 955 P.2d 175 (1998). The state statute also provided for a crime if a BAC was .10 or higher within two hours after driving. In specifically disapproving Barud, the Nevada Supreme Court said:
We disapprove of the Barud court’s failure to consider any conceivable rational basis for the statute other than to create a conclusive presumption that the defendant had a blood alcohol level of .10 or more at the time of driving. Rational basis review requires an additional measure of speculation regarding legislative purpose ...
Id. at 178, n. 4.
¶ 14 The majority in this case, this Court in other cases, and many other state supreme courts6 have found a legitimate, constitutional purpose in prohibiting driving if a blood test will exceed a limit, within a few hours of driving. In some cases this will punish a driver who has a few drinks at a bar, quickly goes home before the alcohol takes full effect, and violates the law although never driving while impaired. This is a reasonable trade-off, and a policy decision the legislature prudently found necessary. It is not irrational to provide that if a person takes a few drinks, they should not drive a car, even immediately afterwards, because although they might be capable of safe driving, they might not be. Because of the great risk created by drunk drivers, a driver should not be permitted to take such a chance. While that is a rational viewpoint, and may even be the better viewpoint, it is not the position taken by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Barud. I believe we are bound by Barud, must reverse Imes’ conviction, and leave it to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reconsider its language in Barud.
¶ 15 Therefore, I am compelled to dissent.

. The limits were changed in the new statute.

. Section 3731(a)(5) of the old statute provided that it was a crime to exceed the BAC limit "if the amount of alcohol by weight in the blood of the person is 0.10% or greater at the time of a chemical test of a sample of the persons breath, blood or urine, which sample is: (i) obtained within three hours after the person drove, operated, or was in actual physical control of the vehicle.” Section 3802(c) of the new act says that "An individual may not drive, operate or be in actual physical control of the movement of a vehicle after imbibing a sufficient amount of alcohol such that the alcohol concentration in the individual’s blood or breath is 0.16% or higher within two hours after the individual has driven, operated or been in actual physical control of the movement of the vehicle.”

. In addition to the cases that cite Barud, see State v. Chirpich, 392 N.W.2d 34 (Minn.App.1986) (DWI statute making it a crime to drive when driver’s alcohol concentration as measured within two hours of time of driving is 0.10 or more not constitutionally overbroad or void for vagueness); State v. Rose, 312 N.C. 441, 323 S.E.2d 339 (1984) (statute proscribing driving after or while consuming a quantity of alcohol which, at any time after driving, is sufficient to result in a BAC of 0.10 or greater is not unconstitutionally vague); State v. Howren 312 N.C. 454, 323 S.E.2d 335 (1984) (same); City of Fargo v. Stensland, 492 N.W.2d 591 (N.D.1992) (statutes did not violate substantive due process even though persons with BAC below .10 while driving might be convicted thereunder).