Face it: the government has a piss fetish.
When a person is charged with a DUI, even before they're convicted, law enforcement often watches them pee in a cup, randomly, two or four times a month.
Law enforcement sloshes it around. Maybe they sniff it. And then they test it for drugs and alcohol. And if they find any — you're double busted.
This is "very common," a lawyer told us.
But that may change. A court just declared what swanky Russian hotel guests and their hired prostitutes already know: peeing should be a private affair.
The Washington State Supreme Court said that random urinalysis tests for people awaiting trial are un-American.
“Urinalysis is at least as invasive as a roadblock or a pat down search,” the Supreme Court said. It "constitutes an acute privacy invasion by the state.”
Now, people in Washington State won't take piss tests if they're charged with DUI.
"It's too intrusive to demand urine tests of people who are presumed innocent," David Lane, a civil rights attorney in Denver, told us.
The ruling only applies in Washington State, and only in this specific circumstance. But it sets a precedent that could be used to try and change the laws in other places.
"The state has an incredible amount of power, and they abuse it frequently," Lane said. "This is how law changes."
Leave a Reply