Why Your Rights are Different in California

Lee McCoy

The National DUI Climate

That's right. A police officer or a toxicologist will get on the stand and testify that, based on her opinion, you were intoxicated or driving with a BAC over 0.08%.

DUI is currently the most-prosecuted crime in America. In most cases, the citizens accused of DUI have never broken any law before. They work a job, pay their taxes, take care of their families and go to church.

More often than not, these citizens are stopped for something other than driving, that is, their driving was not impaired.

The California DUI Environment

California is unique among the states in depriving its citizens of fundamental rights.

First, in 1982 voters passed Proposition 8, dubiously entitled the Victims' Bill of Rights. Prop 8 did away with excluding evidence because a defendant's rights were violated in the process, holding that "all relevant evidence shall be admissible" in a criminal trial.

The ironic result is that evidence that would never be admissible in a simple civil case is now admissible against a criminal defendant.

Second, in 1990 voters pounded nails into the coffin of civil liberty by passing Proposition 115. This extraordinary measure mandates that the state constitution be interpreted to provide no greater protection to a criminal defendant than the U.S. Constitution provides.

With Prop 115, voters nullified 150 years of state constitutional rights, and California became the only state in the history of the Union voluntarily to give up civil liberties.