Caught drunk driving? Try blaming the breathalyzer

Photo by BluEyedA73

The Minnesota Supreme Court ruling today says that people busted with drunk driving can challenge the breathalyzer result in court.

According to the ruling, people have the right to the breathalyzer's source code if they can prove it will aid their defense, says Minnesota Public Radio. More from MPR:

The ruling stems from the DWI charge against Timothy Brunner who wanted the source code to challenge the validity of his blood alcohol test.

Brunner provided evidence that analyzing the source code could reveal the Intoxilyzer's reliability and whether he was guilty of the charges.

While it seems fair to be able to challenge the product used to convict you of a crime, this could be a slippery slope. Won't everyone now want to question their DWI conviction and claim it was a product malfunction? Or if there is something wrong with the product, how many people were wrongly called drunk drivers?