FEAR-List Bulletin posted by Leon Felkins, February 9, 1998
 
The question has been asked as to which states have a law that allows the "Administrative Seizure" of a driver's license when the driver of a vehicle is suspected of being drunk by the arresting officer. I do not have an exact list but I recall reading in a Nashville newspaper when Tennessee was in the process of adopting the law that over 30 states already had the law. That was two years ago.

The "Highway Safety Desk Book" put out by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) (available on the net at http://www.bts.gov/NTL/DOCS/deskbk.html) says the following:

"Administrative License Revocation (ALR)

State government has traditionally retained the responsibility of issuing and regulating driver's licenses. Upon conviction, the courts have been committed to limit or suspend driver's licenses or operating privileges. A current trend is to remove the license sanction from the courts, to eliminate unnecessary delays associated with court backlogs, and to reduce the impact of plea bargaining. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration advocates the on-the-spot revocation by police officers who arrest drivers for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

In states with this legislation, police officers are empowered to confiscate the driver's license of a person arrested for impaired driving when that person either refuses a chemical test of blood, breath or urine or tests above the prescribed limit. The license is usually forwarded to the licensing agency, and the holder is issued a temporary permit to drive pending a hearing. The benefit of ALR is that action is less complicated and immediately removes a known hazardous driver from the roads.

Most states have some version of ALR in operation; it is a condition for some states to receive additional federal highway safety funds."

So, for all practical purposes, we can assume that all states have such a law. I doubt that any state would give up highway funds just to protect some esoteric concepts such as "indivicual freedom" and the "right to a fair trial"!

Leon Felkins