U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Challenge to Minnesota DUI Law

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking up a group of cases challenging laws in Minnesota and North Dakota that make it a crime for people arrested for drunken driving to refuse to take a chemical test that can detect the presence of alcohol.

The justices agreed Friday to consider whether states can criminalize a refusal to test for alcohol in a driver's blood, breath or urine even if police have not obtained a warrant.

More than a dozen states make it a crime to refuse to consent to warrantless alcohol testing. State supreme courts in Minnesota and North Dakota have ruled the laws don't violate constitutional rights.

The Supreme Court ruled in 2013 that police usually must try to obtain a search warrant before ordering blood tests for drunken-driving suspects.