November 12, 2020

RE:    AB3234

Dear Governor Newsom:

I have read with disappointment your letter dated September 30, 2020, addressed to the Assembly, announcing an intention to seek legislation exclude DUIs from the commendable diversion program defined in AB3234.  One must infer from your plan there that you have been approached by MADD – pressed forces to add another exception to DUI law, which on neutral assessment has no merit.

Over the years I have assembled an incomplete picture of the constitutional and statutory and customary exceptions that are littering our law pertaining to drunk driving:

https://www.kennedyforlaw.com/drunk-driving-exceptions-to-the-constitution-and-other-legal-standards

That is why knowledgeable people label DUI a political crime.  Self-regarding religio-moralistic lobbying groups like MADD and SADD, etc., have so influenced the system that false propaganda drives anti-liberty sentiments among politicians like judges, DAs, and Sheriffs, and among unknowing jurors.

The horrific stats invoked by many are really “alcohol-related [accidents, deaths],” a term coined by MADD and pressed onto NHTSA[1], because the relevant stat of “drunk-driver caused [accidents, deaths]” is so factually low as to not justify the oppression the likes of MADD seek.  Alcohol-related incidents do not require any determination of who or what caused the accident nor whether any driver was under the influence of alcohol.  It's a scam category long on implication and suggestion, and short on proper application.

Since it would be unworkable to form groups to urge help for DUI defendants and arrestees, the oppression continues and expands without champions to correct.

No area of misdemeanor criminality has such arduous and rigid and rigorous standards as drunk driving, here and across the fruited plain, nor is as impacted by erroneous and negative political propaganda as DUI, yet many areas of misdemeanors are far more hurtful, statistically and factually, than the run of the mine DUI.

Please rethink your plans re excluding DUI from diversion, because we should not have political crimes in this Republic.

Sincerely,

MICHAEL J. KENNEDY

Attorney at Law 

 cc:     Various members of Assembly

[1] National Highway Traffic Safety Administration