GROSSE ILE TOWNSHIP (AP) — A lawsuit has been filed by a Grosse Ile Township teen who’s challenging a local ordinance and state law letting law enforcement do breath tests on people younger than 21 without a warrant.
The 17-year-old plaintiff claims that’s a violation of the constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches.
The Detroit Free Press reports the lawsuit filed last week stems from a May incident in which a police officer pulled over a car of teens and asked them to do breath tests. The lawsuit says the 17-year-old plaintiff, who was a passenger, refused and was written a ticket by the officer.
The plaintiff’s attorney, Mike Rataj, said police officers don’t have a right to write tickets based on warrantless breath tests.
“It’s a misdemeanor. It goes on a kid’s record. In order for the police to do this, they gotta first get a search warrant,” Rataj said. “That’s the bottom line.”
The lawsuit was filed against the township, the Grosse Ile Police Department and the officer who wrote the ticket. Grosse Ile Township Supervisor Brian Loftus declined to comment Tuesday on the lawsuit, saying he hadn’t seen the lawsuit.
Loftus defended the township’s ordinance permitting police who have “reasonable cause to believe” someone younger than 21 has drank liquor to ask for a breath test.
“There is no benefit to underage drinking or drug use,” Loftus said. “We have this ordinance to protect both minors and the community at large.”
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