Court Opinion

ID: 9770129
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 15:46:41.456512+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:14.611745
License: Public Domain

HARRELL, J.,
concurring.
The Majority opinion could, and should, have been quite a bit shorter, by its own admission. Twenty-three pages into the opinion there appears a paragraph beginning with this sentence: “Ultimately, however, our discussion in the instant case as to the effect, in the administrative context, of the applicability of a right to counsel prior to making a test election is really dicta, because Najafi clearly was given an opportunity to contact counsel.” (Emphasis added.) Moreover, in the last paragraph of the Majority opinion (op. at 188, 12 A.3d at 1270), it is stated that “we avoid having to determine whether or not a police officer must afford the right to counsel to a detained driver in the administrative license suspension hearing.... ” I construe these statements as conceding that: (1) the considerable discussion devoted to Petitioner’s first question on certiorari is unnecessary to decide this case; and, (2) the first question is a moot one, on this record. I join the judgment and the remaining analysis of the Majority opinion supporting affirmance.