Nardone v. Dept of Transportation (majority)
Annotate this CaseThe Supreme Court granted certiorari review in this matter to address divergent decisions in the lower courts pertaining to the statutory scheme governing chemical testing of persons suspected of DUI and related traffic offenses. The Commonwealth Court has consistently construed the “Implied Consent Law” at 75 Pa.C.S. 1547 to require a motorist to assent unequivocally to an official request to take whichever statutorily-prescribed chemical test police select "on pain of" automatic license suspension, whereas the Superior Court has determined a motorist’s compliance with the law if he responds to the official request by asking to take a reasonably practicable, prescribed test of his choosing. The issue presented by the lower court analyses for the Supreme Court's review was, specifically, whether a motorist who requests an alternative test to the officer’s preferred test exercises a statutory right or, instead, refuses to submit to chemical testing in violation of the Implied Consent Law so as to incur suspension of his operating privileges. The Supreme Court found no right to alternative chemical testing in Section 1547. In this case, Appellant's request for alternative chemical testing instead of the test offered by the officer at the moment of his arrest constituted a refusal under the Implied Consent law, and the Commonwealth Court was correct in its analysis appellant's DUI conviction under the Law.
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