Liberty Minute June 30 2014

During the mid-1980s, a state radio broadcast in East Germany proudly announced a record-breaking national blood drive. In the audio equivalent of fine print could be found the critical, defining detail: ?Most of the donors were volunteers.?

To celebrate what used to be called Independence Day, police and in Oregon have announced a ?no refusal? initiative for the Fourth of July weekend. Motorists who refuse to take a Breathalyzer test will be subjected to an immediate involuntary blood test that will take place either at the side of the road, any nearby medical facility, or at a jail. Prosecutors and judges will be on call to rubber-stamp any police request for a blood draw warrant.

Under this totalitarian approach, ?due process? consists of immediate ratification of a police demand for self-incriminating evidence. The Breathalyzer is a notoriously unreliable technology, and police will generally admit as much when it produces test results that exonerate a driver.

In a reasonably free society, ?no refusal? traffic enforcement operations wouldn't exist. If America were to any extent a country worthy of the heritage we celebrate on Independence Day, such a proposal would provoke a righteous armed rebellion. Our colonial patriot forebears drew blood over impositions much less offensive than this.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.