Court Opinion

ID: 9738454
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:53:27.712013+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:06.196199
License: Public Domain

RANDALL, Judge
(concurring specially).
I join in Judge Crippen’s concurrence and I write separately on the only real issue presented: “When is a civil or remedial penalty, by whatever name called, deemed enough substantive punishment that the double jeopardy clause forbids its use if the intended recipient has previously been punished for the same offense?”
This issue and the subsequent challenges arising around the entire country to a criminal DUI trial with its attendant punishment *603when the driver has already been subject to implied consent proceedings had its genesis in United, States v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435,109 S.Ct. 1892, 104 L.Ed.2d 487 (1989).
In Halper, the defendant had previously been subjected to a criminal prosecution for 65 different counts of attempting to defraud Medicare. The amount of money involved in the total number of counts was trivial. The false Medicare claims totalled just $585. Id. at 437, 109 S.Ct. at 1896.
After the criminal prosecution, the federal government went after the defendant for monetary sanctions of $2,000 per count, or a total of $130,000 under the civil False Claims Act. The Supreme Court noted that the issue before it was the double jeopardy protection against multiple punishment. Id. at 440, 109 S.Ct. at 1897. The Supreme Court ruled for the defendant and found that by no matter what name called, a civil sanction of $130,000 where the total claimed fraud was $585, could not honestly be characterized as anything but punishment or retribution. See id. at 452, 109 S.Ct. at 1904.
The Halper court held
that under the Double Jeopardy Clause a defendant who already has been punished in a criminal prosecution may not be subjected to an additional civil sanction to the extent that the second sanction may not fairly be characterized as remedial, but only as a deterrent or retribution.
Id. at 448^49, 109 S.Ct. at 1902.
This is not to say that whether a sanction constitutes punishment must be determined from the defendant’s perspective. On the contrary, our cases have acknowledged that for the defendant even remedial sanctions carry the sting of punishment. * * * Rather, we hold merely that in determining whether a particular civil sanction constitutes criminal punishment, it is the purpose actually served by the sanction in question, not the underlying nature of the proceeding giving rise to the sanction, that must be evaluated.
Id. at 447, n. 7, 109 S.Ct. at 1901, n. 7 (citation omitted). The Halper court also announced
a rule for the rare case, the case such as the one before us, where a fixed-penalty provision subjects a prolific but small-gauge offender to a sanction overwhelmingly disproportionate to the damages he has caused. The rule is one of reason: Where a defendant previously has sustained a criminal penalty and the civil penalty sought in the subsequent proceeding bears no rational relation to the goal of compensating the Government for its loss, but rather appears to qualify as “punishment” in the plain meaning of the word, then the defendant is entitled to an accounting of the Government’s damages and costs to determine if the penalty sought in fact constitutes a second punishment.
Id. at 449-50, 109 S.Ct. at 1902 (emphasis added).
Although Halper involved a setting where the criminal case came first and then the civil sanction, from the totality of the cases discussing the issue I conclude that the order is not significant. Put another way, the issue arises whether the civil comes first, as it does with implied consent, and the criminal second, or as in Halper, criminal first, civil second.
It is clear enough to me from reading Halper and Kurth Ranch that the Supreme Court meant to use the phrase, “is a rule for the rare case, the case such as the one before us.” Id. at 449, 109 S.Ct. at 1902 (emphasis added).
The overreaching by the government in imposing $130,000 civil sanction on a criminal defendant accused of stealing $585 led to the result in Halper. Federal and state law enforcement agencies hate Halper because it has spawned the “Halper defense” across the country, in virtually every jurisdiction, in hundreds, soon to be thousands of drug forfeiture cases, other crimes involving forfeiture statutes, and drunk driving cases. But the government is stuck with it because they called it on themselves. I suggest that if some bureaucrat had made the decision to only fine Halper $2,000 or $3,000, or imposed no fine at all (they didn’t have to impose any to make a point — he had already been punished criminally), we would not be here today. The history behind any change in gov*604ernment, whether the change is effected peacefully or forcefully, can be traced to government overreaching and arbitrary conduct towards its citizens. Our own country, formed in a violent overthrow of existing government 220 years ago, did not take place because the colonists were the recipients of fair bail settings, the right of peaceful assembly, homes left intact unless accompanied by a proper search warrant, and reasonable taxes on tea and coffee. Halper and its progeny make clear that regardless of federal or state legislative labels, civil “remedial sanctions” will be examined behind the wording to see if their true aim is to punish the offender.
I concur with the result reached by the majority because in the present application of our implied consent punishment upon drivers, although I agree with those who would say we are getting close to the breaking point, I do not, at least for now, see such a harsh and excessive punishment that Minnesota’s dual system of implied consent/DUI should be struck down on the spot. But like the concurrence of Judge Crippen, I see our dual system creaking at its joints from the strain. I conclude the mantra of the state, that implied consent is remedial and therefore not double punishment, has to be disregarded if we are to remain honest with our citizens. In truth, the so-called remedial sanctions do their job of “remediating” by punishing drivers. The history behind the legislative enactments, the rhetoric from citizens concerned about drunk driving, and from the law enforcement agencies charged with guarding our roads makes it clear that the civil penalties were imposed and then ratcheted up to teach drivers that if you drive intoxicated (or .10), you will be punished, to teach you a lesson not to do it again, and we want that lesson to be spread to other drivers. This is not to say that those who drive under the influence should not be punished for what they have done and to send a message to others, but this is to say that if the remediation were not punishment, its lessons would not stick. This is all too well known to the designers of the civil implied consent statutes, and to the designers of the unbroken string of enhancements of implied consent punishment the last decade.
The better, and the more honest argument, is that across this entire country there are thousands of civil sanctions/punishments that are imposed in virtually every walk of life and yet do not automatically bar any later criminal prosecution, unless the Halper rare case test of excessive and harsh retribution is met.
The countless federal and state agencies that monitor work place rules, OSHA, clean air and water standards, environmental concerns, professional conduct, etc. invariably have within their power the ability to fine, suspend, disbar and shut down people or entities that run afoul of a civil law. If all such civil punishment, and I will call them punishments, led to an absolute bar to any later criminal prosecution when the facts warranted, it would lead to wholesale confusion and likely a monstrous result. For modest infractions, the government might choose to start charging all its citizens criminally, for fear it would be barred later.
An example would be school discipline. Right now, if a student brings a gun or a knife to school, suspension or complete expulsion is likely. As it exists today, the state has the ability, but doesn’t have to use it, to charge criminally if the facts warrant. The predicted suspension or expulsion is, by no stretch of the imagination, remedial. If it was truly remedial, the last thing you would want to do is drive the student from the school. Rather you would want to keep him or her in class and under the control of the teachers and attempt to help that student find the error of his ways. But it is fairly uniform today, and arguably with good reason, that the bringing of a gun or a knife to school, will lead to suspension or perhaps being permanently expelled. That is pure punishment, meant to be pure punishment and meant to punish people for a bad act. Under a broad theory of Halper, any suspension/expulsion by the school would lead to a bar of all later criminal action. We would not want a situation where law enforcement would direct a school not to do a thing to that student so they could later bring criminal charges if they could investigate and muster the facts to convince a magistrate that probable cause for a criminal trial existed (I ac*605knowledge the difference in the mechanics between juvenile court and criminal court, but the issue and the underlying principles remain the same).
I cannot read into Halper, Kurth Ranch, and the other cases both parties cite, a broad sweeping holding so that the Halper court meant to knock out every implied consent statute, and every agency and governmental sanction around the country, in those tens of thousands of cases, including, but not limited to, drunk driving. I can read into Halper a warning to state and federal agencies responsible for law enforcement that when you overreach with your civil punishment, you will be limited to that punishment, and a later chance to punish criminally will be barred. As stated above, I conclude the result remains the same, whether the civil or criminal punishment comes first. If the punishment is excessive, and if retribution is its chief purpose, even a collateral claim of remediation will not save it.
Minnesota is approaching the breaking point. You are punished under the implied consent law for not taking the test, and punished under the implied consent law for taking the test and producing a .10 or more reading. You are punished criminally for the exact same things. You are punished criminally for refusing to take the test, and punished criminally for taking the test and producing a .10 or more. I reject the state’s argument that there is no “single behavioral” bar, that there is a different element in implied consent and drunk driving, and therefore punishment in one does not bar punishment in the other. I do not see even a remote argument that they are for two different offenses. Both the civil and the criminal punishments are visited on the driver for the same conduct committed in the same car, on the same day, at the same time and place.
I also reject the state’s argument that there is no bar to double punishment because the civil implied consent hearing and the drunk driving criminal case are part of one single coordinated proceeding, and therefore since they are the same, they cannot be double, and therefore both punishments can be had. This is the state’s weakest defense. The two proceedings are separate as a matter of law; one only before a judge (implied consent administrative law), and one on a different date with a different judge or jury (DUI-criminal law), different penalties and different standards of proof. Attorneys for the drivers argue persuasively that the safest and most constitutional course for the state to take is to combine implied consent and drunk driving into one proceeding. If the driver is found guilty, a suspension of license and a fine could accompany a jail sentence. Today, following a guilty verdict in a criminal trial, the judge has an ability to impose as part of the same sentence imprisonment and/or probation, monetary fines, and the loss of certain privileges. The drivers concede this can be done. They simply insist it has to be done in one proceeding, whether called civil or criminal.
I conclude that implied consent punishment and drunk driving criminal punishment are a form of double punishment, but that Minnesota’s practice has, at least for now, gotten close to, but not past, the Halper breaking point of substantial punishment, deterrents, and retribution, with remediation barely hanging on as an afterthought.