NC Supreme Court Reverses State v. McKenzie: CDL Disqualification Does Not Bar DWI Prosecution

The court of appeals’ decision last January in State v. McKenzie was big news in the DWI world. The state’s intermediate appellate court held the one-year disqualification of a defendant’s commercial driver’s license (CDL) stemming from charges that he drove his personal vehicle while impaired amounted to criminal punishment. Thus, the court of appeals concluded, the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy prevented the defendant from subsequently being criminally prosecuted for the impaired driving charge itself. The decision, issued 2-1 over a dissent, was a surprise to many, including me. If it stood, it meant that thousands of commercial driver’s license holders who were disqualified as commercial drivers upon being charged with impaired driving could not thereafter be prosecuted. The North Carolina Supreme Court quickly issued a writ of supersedeas and stayed enforcement of the court’s judgment. Per Curiam Reversal. On Friday, the state supreme court in a per curiam opinion adopting the reasoning of the dissenting opinion below reversed the decision of the court of appeals. Judge Robert C. Hunter’s dissent below. The defendant in McKenzie argued two grounds for dismissal of his DWI charges. First, he argued that prosecuting him for DWI after revoking his commercial driver’s license for a year subjected him to multiple punishments for a single offense, thus violating double jeopardy. Like the majority, the dissent employed the seven-factor analysis from Hudson v. United States, 522 U.S. 93 (1997) to evaluate whether the CDL disqualification was civil or criminal in nature. Unlike the majority, the dissent concluded [...]