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State v. Lussier4/28/2000
ign against drunk driving has taught us, if nothing else, that the threat of criminal prosecution has little impact on keeping problem drinkers off of our highways. As a result, the focus of state legislatures and law enforcement agencies has been on removing intoxicated motorists from highways by suspending their licenses or otherwise preventing them from driving. Because the primary objective of DUI laws and law enforcement is to remove intoxicated drivers from our highways, the deterrent effect of the exclusionary rule would be weakened significantly if it were not applied in civil suspension proceedings. See Whisenhunt, 746 P.2d at 1299.
As noted, if the exclusionary rule were not applied in civil suspension proceedings, law enforcement officers could make investigatory stops based on hunches or stereotypical beliefs, or for any or no reason whatsoever, knowing that even if any evidence obtained from the stop were to be suppressed in criminal proceedings, license suspensions could still follow. Given the significance of obtaining license suspensions, allowing unlawfully obtained evidence to be admitted in civil suspension proceedings could encourage disregard for the constitutional limits of a legal stop. See LaFave, supra, at 202-03 (highly relevant factors in determining whether to apply exclusionary rule in quasi-criminal proceedings are magnitude of consequences for individual involved and extent to which non-exclusion would encourage unlawful searches and seizures); cf. Plymouth Sedan v. Pennsylvania, 380 U.S. 693, 700-02 (1965) (exclusionary rule is applicable in forfeiture proceedings because they are quasi-criminal in character and can result in punishment even greater than in underlying criminal case).
In sum, notwithstanding that the license suspension system is civil in nature and does not demand all of the procedural safeguards required in criminal proceedings, see State v. O'Brien, 158 Vt. 275, 277, 609 A.2d 981, 982 (1992), we conclude that it is appropriate to apply the exclusionary rule in civil license suspension proceedings to protect the core value of privacy embraced in Article 11, to promote the public's trust in the judicial system, and to assure that unlawful police conduct is not encouraged. See Lopez-Mendoza, 468 U.S. at 1060-61 (Marshall, J., dissenting) (exclusionary rule enables "judiciary to avoid taint of partnership in official lawlessness" and assures public that "government will not profit from lawless behavior").
The essence of the Chief Justice's remarks in his dissent is that the danger of drunk driving supercedes the right of Vermonters to be free from governmental intrusion into their private affairs. The Chief Justice accuses this Court of having done a "great disservice" to law enforcement officials by concluding that the potential risk of unlawful police conduct exceeds the actual risk of drunk driving. See post, at 7. Nowhere in our decision do we make such a conclusion. Our holding has nothing to do with the likelihood of whether police officers will act in good faith or how often they will make illegal stops. Rather, we seek to provide an enforcement mechanism for constitutional rights that protect citizens against unlawful government intrusions. This Court's enforcement of those rights does no more disservice to law enforcement officers than the existence of the rights themselves. Indeed, assuming the Chief Justice's faith in law enforcement officials is well-founded, our holding will have no impact whatsoever on the prosecution of DUI civil suspensions.
It is the duty of this Court to see that constitutional rights are upheld. By precluding the introduction of evidence obtained as the result of constitutional violations, t
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