The Maine Supreme Judicial Court voted 4-2 to approve a state statute requiring drivers involved in fatal motor-vehicle crashes to submit to blood tests for alcohol and other drugs, the Associated Press reported Aug. 15.

The high court overruled a lower-court ruling that such tests violated Fourth Amendment protections against government searches. Supreme Court Chief Justice Leigh Saufley said that the privacy interests of drivers did not outweigh the state's need to determine whether drivers were using alcohol or other drugs prior to a fatal crash.

Saufley also said that the drug-test results are admissible in court if the driver consents to testing or the state can show probable cause that the driver was operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol or other drugs.

Writing in dissent, Supreme Court Justice Jon Levy said that the decision "leads the law into new, uncharted territory in which probable cause, a cornerstone of the Fourth Amendment, plays a secondary, after-the-fact role. Notwithstanding [the statute's] proper and noble purpose, I conclude that to the extent the statute authorizes searches and seizures based on after-acquired probable cause, the statute is unconstitutional."