State v. Pickering

When Maine’s operating-under-the-influence statute was revised two years ago a radical innovation was the option given to every prosecutor, in his or her unfettered discretion, to treat certain violations of this law as civil offenses rather than as criminal *1164offenses. 29 M.R.S.A. § 1312 (Supp.1982-1983). Confronted on this Defendant’s appeal with a challenge to the law’s constitutionality, today’s majority mount their defense to the duplicative aspects of this statute on the decision of the United States Supreme Court in United States v. Batchelder, 442 U.S. 114, 99 S.Ct. 2198, 60 L.Ed.2d 755…