In the Supreme Court of Iowa
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF IOWA No. 18–1050 Filed June 14, 2019 ALEX WAYNE WESTRA, Appellant, vs. IOWA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION, Appellee. Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Polk County, Arthur E. Gamble, Judge. A motorist appeals a district court ruling denying his petition for judicial review of an agency decision suspending his driver’s license for one year. AFFIRMED. Matthew T. Lindholm of Gourley, Rehkemper, & Lindholm, P.L.C., West Des Moines, for appellant. Thomas J. Miller, Attorney General, and Robin G. Formaker, Assistant Attorney General, for appellee. 2 MANSFIELD, Justice. This case began when a driver tried to reverse course. But it presents the question whether our court should reverse course. Specifically, should we overrule precedent and apply the exclusionary rule to driver’s license revocation proceedings when an Iowa statute dictates otherwise? In Westendorf v. Iowa Department of Transportation, 400 N.W.2d 553, 557 (Iowa 1987), superseded by statute as recognized by Brownsberger v. Department of Transportation, 460 N.W.2d 449, 450–51 (Iowa 1990), we declined to apply the exclusionary rule so long as the enumerated statutory conditions for license revocation were met. Later, the general assembly enacted a limited exception to Westendorf. See Iowa Code § 321J.13(6) (2017). This requires the Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) to rescind revocation of a driver’s license if there has been a criminal prosecution for operating while intoxicated (OWI) and the criminal case determined that the peace officer did not have reasonable grounds to believe a violation of the OWI laws had occurred or that the chemical test was otherwise inadmissible or invalid.
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