MOTOR VEHICLE ADMINISTRATION v. APRIL MARIE DEERING
Court of Appeals, McDonald, Filed May 21, 2014,
MVA Suspension- Denial of opportunity to consult counsel before deciding whether to take the breath test does not exclude automatic administrative license suspension due to refusal or positive result.

Notably, in the criminal law context, the CoA questioned the continued vitality of Sites v. State, 300 Md. 702 (1984). Sites stood for the proposition that there was a 14th Amendment due process right to consult counsel prior to taking a breath test. However, the CoA noted that “what little case authority may have supported the federal constitutional conclusion drawn in Sites, that authority has largely evaporated.”

Moreover, the USSC “cast doubt” on the existence of the constitutional right noted in Sites. In Nyflot v. Minnesota Comm’r of Public Safety, 474 U.S. 1027 (1985), the USSC dismissed a similar case “for want of a substantial federal question.”