The People of the State of Colorado, Plaintiff-Appellant v. Oliver Benton Hyde, Defendant-Appellee

Summary

The court held that an unconscious driver's warrantless blood draw was constitutional because driving in Colorado constitutes statutory consent to blood-alcohol testing under the circumstances specified by the Expressed Consent Statute. The court also rejected the driver's equal-protection challenge, concluding that treating unconscious drivers differently from conscious drivers survives rational-basis review. Justice Eid, joined by the Chief Justice and Justice Coats, concurred in the judgment but would have more fully grounded the result in statutory consent inferred from the context of driving.