Blog posts relating to driving under the influence of intoxicants, DUII in Oregon, but sometimes called Driving While Intoxicated, DWI, in other jurisdictions.
Senator Crapo’s alcohol problem
In Oregon, and in most states, driving with a blood-alcohol level of .08% or higher is driving under the influence of intoxicants, or DUII. The .08% is defined, semiofficially, by federal law, and it represents a balance between increasing public safety (a low number would capture more drivers) and individual autonomy (if the number is too low, no one could have a few drinks at dinner and still drive home). It’s probably necessary to have a single figure for everyone, but in fact the .08 figure is too high for people who don’t...
read moreHow many times do they have to catch you driving under the influence to get three convictions? (Four, of course; the diverted first DUII doesn’t really count.)
I had oral argument today in the Oregon Court of Appeals about whether a first DUII conviction from Nevada counts as a conviction in Oregon for purposes of a lifetime driver’s license revocation. There is a decent argument that it doesn’t; the first conviction in Nevada has a significant treatment component that makes it look kind of like a diversion. The panel (Haselton, Armstrong, Duncan) were interested in the issue, and asked about hypothetical other states where DUII is an infraction, or where there is no diversion of any sort. There...
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