McElwain v. Office of the Secretary of State

2015 IL 117170, 39 N.E.3d 550
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 24, 2015
Docket117170
StatusUnpublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 2015 IL 117170 (McElwain v. Office of the Secretary of State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McElwain v. Office of the Secretary of State, 2015 IL 117170, 39 N.E.3d 550 (Ill. 2015).

Opinion

2015 IL 117170

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS

(Docket No. 117170)

KEVIN McELWAIN, Appellee, v. THE OFFICE OF THE ILLINOIS SECRETARY OF STATE, Appellant.

Opinion filed September 24, 2015.

JUSTICE THOMAS delivered the judgment of the court, with opinion.

Chief Justice Garman and Justices Freeman, Kilbride, Karmeier, Burke, and Theis concurred in the judgment and opinion.

OPINION

¶1 This is a direct appeal from a circuit court order finding section 11-501.6 of the Illinois Vehicle Code (625 ILCS 5/11-501.6 (West 2012)) unconstitutional as applied to this plaintiff. This section provides that a driver who is arrested for a traffic violation related to a fatality or other serious personal injury automatically consents to having his or her blood, breath or urine tested for the presence of alcohol or drugs. Refusal to submit to the testing results in an automatic suspension of the person’s driver’s license. Here, the circuit court of Cook County found the statute unconstitutional as applied because the police requested the test almost 48 hours after the accident. For the reasons that follow, we affirm. ¶2 On May 20, 2012, plaintiff, Kevin McElwain, was involved in a traffic accident. At the time, plaintiff was stopped at an intersection in the left turn lane of northbound Kirk Road in Geneva. Plaintiff began to make a U-turn, when a motorcycle traveling southbound on Kirk Road came through the intersection and collided with the side of plaintiff’s vehicle. Both the driver and passenger of the motorcycle received substantial injuries, and the passenger died as a result of the injuries she sustained. On the date of the accident, plaintiff was neither issued any tickets nor asked to take any chemical tests.

¶3 During their investigation of the accident, the police discovered in plaintiff’s vehicle rolling papers and a small plastic bag containing a residue that appeared to be cannabis. However, two police officers who were present at the scene of the accident did not think that plaintiff appeared to be under the influence of cannabis.

¶4 Two days later, on May 22, plaintiff was asked to present himself at the Geneva police station. He was questioned numerous times about his use of marijuana. Plaintiff admitted that he had smoked marijuana two weeks prior to the accident. The police issued plaintiff a ticket for failing to yield when turning left and also requested that he take a chemical test. The police read the appropriate statutory warnings to plaintiff (see 625 ILCS 5/11-501.6(c) (West 2012)), and plaintiff refused to take the test. The Secretary of State then suspended plaintiff’s driver’s license for three years.

¶5 Plaintiff petitioned the Secretary to rescind the suspension on the basis that the police had waited too long to request the chemical test. Following a hearing, an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) upheld the suspension. The ALJ reasoned as follows:

“[T]he sum and substance of the Petitioner’s argument seems to be that the officers violated his Due Process rights by waiting too long to conduct their investigation into his liability for the collision and his use of marijuana prior to the accident. This presupposes that the officers must demonstrate probable cause to issue the ticket and probable cause of intoxication prior to the collision. However, the statute does not require either to be shown by the state prior to issuance of the Sworn Report. All that is required is that a Uniform Traffic Ticket be issued to the Petitioner, the Petitioner be read the appropriate traffic accident warnings to motorist and the Petitioner refuse to take a chemical test. In this case, all three requirements of the statute were clearly met.”

-2- The Secretary subsequently adopted the ALJ’s findings of fact and conclusions of law and entered a final administrative order denying plaintiff’s request for rescission of the suspension.

¶6 Plaintiff filed an action for administrative review. In his complaint, plaintiff contended that his due process and fourth amendment rights were violated when the police sought chemical testing two days after the accident. Plaintiff argued that section 11-501.6 was applied to him in an unconstitutional manner.

¶7 The circuit court agreed with plaintiff and held section 11-501.6 unconstitutional as applied. The court relied primarily on Fink v. Ryan, 174 Ill. 2d 302 (1996), in which this court upheld section 11-501.6 against a facial constitutional challenge. The circuit court in Fink held that section 11-501.6 authorized searches that violated the fourth amendment and that the statute could not be justified by the “special needs” exception to the fourth amendment. 1 This court reversed and held that the statute authorized searches that fell within the “special needs” exception to the fourth amendment. Central to this court’s analysis was its belief that drivers have a diminished expectation of privacy shortly after their involvement in serious traffic accidents. Id. at 310-11.

¶8 Here, the circuit court noted that the very circumstances that led the King court to uphold the statute were absent in plaintiff’s case. In this case, the police sought the testing two days after the accident, when plaintiff no longer had a diminished expectation of privacy. The circuit court also found that the police were attempting to use the statute as an “unjustified detour around a proper search.” The court explained that the special needs exception to the fourth amendment underlies the validity of a section 11-501.6 search. Here, however, the police had ample time to obtain a warrant. The drug paraphernalia was found in plaintiff’s car on May 20, but the plaintiff was not called into the police station until May 22. The court found that two days was ample time for the police to obtain a warrant. Finally, the court noted that section 11-401(b-1) (625 ILCS 5/11-401(b-1) (West 2012)), which allows chemical testing of a driver who is arrested after fleeing the scene of an accident, requires that the testing be done within 12 hours of the accident. The court

1 Under the “special needs” exception to the fourth amendment, neither a warrant nor probable cause are required when “ ‘special needs, beyond the normal need for law enforcement, make the warrant and probable-cause requirement impracticable.’ ” Griffin v. Wisconsin, 483 U.S. 868, 873 (1987) (quoting New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 351 (1985) (Blackmun, J., concurring in the judgment)).

-3- found the special needs exception underlies both section 11-401(b-1) and section 11-501.6, and that it would be illogical to hold that a person who flees the scene is subject to chemical testing for only 12 hours, but that a person who stays at the scene and cooperates with the police is subject to testing for an indefinite amount of time. Thus, the court held that section 11-501.6 was unconstitutional as applied to plaintiff.

¶9 We allowed the Secretary’s petition for leave to appeal. Ill. S. Ct. R. 315 (eff. July 1, 2013).

¶ 10 ANALYSIS

¶ 11 Decisions of the Secretary of State suspending, revoking, cancelling, or disqualifying any license or permit are subject to the Administrative Review Law. See 625 ILCS 5/11-501.8(h) (West 2014). In an administrative review case, the agency’s factual findings are deemed prima facie true and correct, and they will not be disturbed on review unless they are against the manifest weight of the evidence. Gumma v.

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Bluebook (online)
2015 IL 117170, 39 N.E.3d 550, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcelwain-v-office-of-the-secretary-of-state-ill-2015.