McEVERS, Justice.
[¶ 1] Danny Birchfield appeals from a criminal judgment entered on a conditional plea of guilty to class B misdemeanor refusal to submit to a chemical test in violation of N.D.C.C. § 39-08-01, reserving his right to appeal the district court's denial of his motion to dismiss the charge on constitutional grounds. Because we conclude the criminal refusal statute does not violate Birchfield's rights under the Fourth Amendment or N.D. Const. art. I, § 8, we affirm the criminal judgment.
[¶ 2] On October 10, 2013, Birchfield drove into a ditch in Morton County. A highway patrol officer arrived at the scene, believed Birchfield was intoxicated, and asked Birchfield to perform field sobriety tests, which he failed. Birchfield took a preliminary breath test, which revealed a.254 percent alcohol concentration. The officer placed Birchfield under arrest and read him the implied consent advisory. Birchfield refused to consent to a chemical test.
[¶ 3] Birchfield was charged with refusal to submit to a chemical test in violation of N.D.C.C. § 39-08-01, a class B misdemeanor. Birchfield moved to dismiss the criminal charge, contending N.D.C.C. § 39-08-01, which criminalizes a refusal to submit to a chemical test, is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment and its state counterpart, N.D. Const. art. I, § 8. The district court concluded Birchfield's rights under these provisions were not violated by the criminal charge for refusing to consent to a chemical test. Birchfield conditionally pled guilty under N.D.R.Crim.P. 11(a)(2), reserving his right to appeal the court's order denying his motion to dismiss.
[¶ 4] Birchfield argues the district court erred in denying his motion to dismiss because the criminal refusal statute is unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment and N.D. Const. art. I, § 8, and as applied to him.
[¶ 5] Our standard for reviewing constitutional challenges to legislative enactments is well-established:
Simons v. State, 2011 ND 190, ¶ 23, 803 N.W.2d 587 (internal citations omitted).
[¶ 6] Driving is a privilege, not a constitutional right and is subject to reasonable control by the State under its police power. See, e.g., State v. Smith, 2014 ND 152, ¶ 8, 849 N.W.2d 599; McCoy v. North Dakota Dep't of Transp., 2014 ND 119, ¶ 26, 848 N.W.2d 659. Under N.D.C.C. § 39-20-01(1), an individual who drives "is deemed to have given consent, and shall consent, subject to the provisions of this chapter, to a chemical test...." A chemical test may be administered "only after placing the individual ... under arrest." N.D.C.C. § 39-20-01(2). However, a driver has a right to refuse a chemical test under N.D.C.C. § 39-20-04(1), which provides, "If a person refuses to submit to testing under section 39-20-01 ..., none may be given." See State v. Fetch, 2014 ND 195, ¶ 8, 855 N.W.2d 389.
[¶ 7] The criminal refusal provision is contained in N.D.C.C. § 39-08-01, which provides in relevant part:
Section 39-20-01, N.D.C.C., sets forth the implied consent requirements for motor vehicle drivers in general and in subsection 3 states that the "law enforcement officer shall inform the individual charged that North Dakota law requires the individual to take the test to determine whether the individual is under the influence of alcohol or drugs" and "that refusal to take the test directed by the law enforcement officer is a crime punishable in the same manner as driving under the influence."
[¶ 8] The Fourth Amendment and N.D. Const. art. I, § 8, prohibit unreasonable searches and seizures, and the administration of chemical tests to determine alcohol concentration is a search for purposes of these constitutional provisions. See Smith, 2014 ND 152, ¶ 7, 849 N.W.2d 599; McCoy, 2014 ND 119, ¶ 10, 848 N.W.2d 659. Before the Legislature enacted
[¶ 9] However, other states during this period had enacted statutes criminalizing the refusal to consent to a chemical test, and Fourth Amendment challenges to those statutes were unsuccessful. For example, in Burnett v. Municipality of Anchorage, 806 F.2d 1447, 1451 (9th Cir. 1986), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Alaska's criminal refusal statute against a Fourth Amendment challenge:
See also State v. Netland, 762 N.W.2d 202, 214 (Minn.2009) ("We hold that the criminal test-refusal statute does not violate the prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures found in the federal and state constitutions because under the exigency exception, no warrant is necessary to secure a blood-alcohol test where there is probable cause to suspect a crime in which chemical impairment is an element of the offense.") (footnote omitted); Rowley v. Commonwealth, 48 Va.App. 181, 629 S.E.2d 188, 191 (2006) (no Fourth Amendment violation for criminally punishing refusal to provide breath sample because the "act of driving constitutes an irrevocable, albeit implied, consent to the officer's demand for a breath sample"). The courts in these cases relied in part on the United States Supreme Court's decision in Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757, 770, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 16 L.Ed.2d 908 (1966) (internal citation omitted), which upheld the warrantless blood test of a person arrested for driving under the influence because the arresting officer "might reasonably have believed that he was confronted with an emergency, in which the delay necessary to obtain a warrant, under the circumstances, threatened `the destruction of evidence.'"
[¶ 10] In 2013, the United States Supreme Court decided Missouri v. McNeely, ___ U.S. ___, 133 S.Ct. 1552, 1568, 185 L.Ed.2d 696 (2013) (plurality decision), which held that "in drunk-driving investigations,
Id. at 1566.
[¶ 11] Since the McNeely decision, we have held that consent to a chemical test is not coerced and is not rendered involuntary merely by a law enforcement officer's reading of the implied consent advisory that accurately informs the arrestee of the consequences for refusal, including the administrative and criminal penalties, and presents the arrestee with a choice. See McCoy, 2014 ND 119, ¶ 21, 848 N.W.2d 659; Smith, 2014 ND 152, ¶ 16, 849 N.W.2d 599; State v. Boehm, 2014 ND 154, ¶ 20, 849 N.W.2d 239; Fetch, 2014 ND 195, ¶ 9, 855 N.W.2d 389. The United States Supreme Court has not decided, and it is a question of first impression in North Dakota, whether criminalizing a refusal to consent to a chemical test violates a person's right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.
[¶ 12] Birchfield has not drawn our attention to any appellate court decisions striking down criminal refusal statutes, and we have found that since the Supreme Court's ruling in McNeely, criminal refusal statutes have continued to withstand Fourth Amendment challenges, particularly in Minnesota. The Minnesota Court of Appeals has held that the "Fourth Amendment does not prohibit the state from criminalizing a suspected drunk driver's refusal to submit to a breath test for alcohol content when the circumstances established a basis for the officer to have alternatively pursued a constitutionally reasonable nonconsensual test by securing and executing a warrant." State v. Bernard, 844 N.W.2d 41, 42 Syll., 47 (Minn. Ct.App.2014) (but declining to decide whether "the implied consent law is unconstitutional because it conditions the exercise of the privilege of driving on the driver surrendering his constitutional right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures"), review granted (May 20, 2014). See also State v. Brooks, 838 N.W.2d 563, 572 (Minn.2013), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 134 S.Ct. 1799, 188 L.Ed.2d 759 (2014) (rejecting constitutional argument that "the Legislature does not have the power to imply someone's
[¶ 13] In addressing McNeely, these courts point out as we have in our cases, that McNeely merely held the natural metabolization of alcohol in the bloodstream is not a per se exigency justifying a Fourth Amendment exception to the warrant requirement for nonconsensual blood testing in all drunk-driving cases, and did not address the constitutional validity of implied consent statutes. See, e.g., Yong Shik Won, 332 P.3d at 682; Isaacson, 2014 WL 1271762 at *2. They also point out the McNeely Court referred to acceptable "legal tools" with "significant consequences" for refusing to submit to testing which are available to the states as alternatives to warrantless, nonconsensual blood draws, including the constitutional use under the Fifth Amendment of a defendant's refusal to submit to chemical testing to show the defendant is guilty of drunk driving under South Dakota v. Neville, 459 U.S. 553, 103 S.Ct. 916, 74 L.Ed.2d 748 (1983). See, e.g., Yong Shik Won, at 682; Manska, 2014 WL 1516316 at *7; Chasingbear, 2014 WL 3802616 at *2. The Chasingbear court explained:
Id. (citations omitted).
[¶ 14] The district court in this case ruled because Birchfield refused to be tested,
[¶ 15] Courts have distinguished Camara on the grounds urged by the State in this case. Unlike the regulation in Camara which allowed for suspicionless searches of private property, implied consent laws, like North Dakota law, do not authorize chemical testing unless an officer has probable cause to believe the defendant is under the influence, and the defendant will already have been arrested on the charge. See, e.g., Hoover, 549 Fed. Appx. at 356; Poitra, 2014 WL 3892709 at *2 n. 3. Even onsite screening tests are allowed only when an officer "has reason to believe that the individual committed a moving traffic violation or was involved in a traffic accident as a driver, and in conjunction with the violation or the accident the officer has, through the officer's observations, formulated an opinion that the individual's body contains alcohol," N.D.C.C. § 39-20-14(1), and the Camara Court would have authorized code enforcement searches on less than traditional probable cause. 387 U.S. at 534-39, 87 S.Ct. 1727. Unlike the regulation in Camara, the test refusal statute criminalizes the refusal to submit to a chemical test but does not authorize a warrantless search. See Poitra, at *4. Furthermore, reliance on Camara "overlooks the apparent difference between the way the Supreme Court treats cases in which the Fourth Amendment affects searching individuals by testing in the drunk-driving context and those where it affects a home search in any context." Chasingbear, 2014 WL 3802616 at *14.
[¶ 16] For similar reasons, Birchfield's reliance on Ferguson v. City of Charleston, 532 U.S. 67, 121 S.Ct. 1281, 149 L.Ed.2d 205 (2001), and cases like it, is unavailing. In Ferguson, the Supreme Court struck down a warrantless, suspicionless regime of mandatory drug testing of maternity patients in which the test results were disclosed to police for law enforcement purposes. Id. at 77 n. 10, 86, 121 S.Ct. 1281. See also, e.g., Marshall v. Barlow's, Inc., 436 U.S. 307, 310, 325, 98 S.Ct. 1816, 56 L.Ed.2d 305 (1978) (holding unconstitutional statute allowing warrantless, suspicionless searches to inspect for safety hazards and violations of OSHA regulations); See v. City of Seattle, 387 U.S. 541, 546, 87 S.Ct. 1737, 18 L.Ed.2d 943 (1967) (reversing conviction for refusing to permit fire department inspection of appellant's locked commercial warehouse without a warrant and without probable cause to believe a violation of municipal ordinances existed); Lebron v. Secretary of Florida
[¶ 17] Furthermore, the "touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is reasonableness," which is assessed by balancing the promotion of legitimate governmental interests with the intrusion on an individual's privacy. State v. Adams, 2010 ND 184, ¶ 15, 788 N.W.2d 619. There is no question "the State's interest in decreasing drunk driving is a valid public concern. Indeed, `[n]o one can seriously dispute the magnitude of the drunken driving problem or the States' interest in eradicating it. Media reports of alcohol-related death and mutilation on the Nation's roads are legion.'" Martin v. North Dakota Dep't of Transp., 2009 ND 181, ¶ 7, 773 N.W.2d 190 (quoting Michigan Dep't of State Police v. Sitz, 496 U.S. 444, 451, 110 S.Ct. 2481, 110 L.Ed.2d 412 (1990)). A licensed driver has a diminished expectation of privacy with respect to enforcement of drunk-driving laws because he or she is presumed to know the laws governing the operation of a motor vehicle, and the implied consent laws contain safeguards to prohibit suspicionless requests by law enforcement officers to submit to a chemical test. See, e.g., Yong Shik Won, 332 P.3d at 681; Stevens v. Commissioner of Pub. Safety, 850 N.W.2d 717, 728-29 (Minn.Ct.App.2014); Muir, 2014 WL 4258701 at *6. The Legislature created a statutory right to refuse a chemical test, but has attached significant consequences to refusal so a driver may not avoid the potential consequences of test submission and gain an advantage by simply refusing the test. See, e.g., Smith, 2014 ND 152, ¶ ¶ 9-10, 849 N.W.2d 599; McCoy, 2014 ND 119, ¶ 12, 848 N.W.2d 659; Murphy, 527 N.W.2d at 255-56. The defendant here submitted to a preliminary breath test which yielded a result well above the alcohol concentration necessary to implicate the possibility that he may have been subject to enhanced penalties based on his level of intoxication. N.D.C.C. § 39-08-01(5)(a)(2) (adding additional penalties for a first offense conviction, of a higher minimum fine and at least two days' imprisonment, where the alcohol concentration is at least sixteen one hundredths of one percent by weight). By choosing to refuse further testing, he was subject to criminal penalty for the refusal, but was able to avoid the enhanced penalties for being highly intoxicated. Criminal refusal statutes were in existence in some states at the time McNeely was decided,
[¶ 18] Finally, in Smith, 2014 ND 152, ¶ 16, 849 N.W.2d 599, this Court relied on the Minnesota Supreme Court's decision in Brooks, 838 N.W.2d 563, to hold the giving of the implied consent advisory informing the arrestee that refusing a chemical test is a crime does not render consent to the test involuntary. The court in Chasingbear, 2014 WL 3802616, noted the anomalous situation that would arise if the Minnesota criminal refusal statute was ruled unconstitutional.
Chasingbear, at *3.
[¶ 19] Unpublished decisions from other jurisdictions have value if they are persuasive. Lucas v. Riverside Park Condominiums Unit Owners Ass'n, 2009 ND 217, ¶ 19, 776 N.W.2d 801; In re Guardianship of Barros, 2005 ND 122, ¶ 15, 701 N.W.2d 402. We recognize that several of these decisions, both reported and unreported, are pending review, but we find their reasoning persuasive. We conclude the criminal refusal statute is not unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment or N.D. Const. art. I, § 8, or as applied to Birchfield.
[¶ 20] We do not address other arguments raised because they either are unnecessary to the decision or are without merit. The criminal judgment is affirmed.
[¶ 21] GERALD W. VANDE WALLE, C.J., DANIEL J. CROTHERS, DALE V. SANDSTROM, and CAROL RONNING KAPSNER, JJ., concur.