Megan has an excellent suggestion for reducing drunk driving: put a note on convicted offenders’ licenses that makes it illegal for bartenders to serve them. It makes a hell of a lot more sense than installing breathalyzers in steering columns. Cheaper, too.
Of course, you’d have to make bartenders (or door persons) ID everybody in the bar, including people who are obviously over 21. As a practical matter, it might be tough to pull off. That said, it can’t hurt to do it, assuming it’s legally okay to prohibit convicted offenders from drinking alcohol (I imagine it would be okay–compelling state interest in public safety and all).
Some bars already do ID everyone as a matter of policy, and of course others (college bars, for instance) do what amounts to this. It doesn’t seem to interfere with their business.
And yeah, I think it’s probably within the state’s power to prevent convicted offenders from drinking. That’s a pretty standard condition for probation, for instance. In this case you wouldn’t actually be going that far — you’d just be preventing them from drinking outside of their home or private functions.
The problematic edge case would be restaurants, I think. Not sure how to deal with that.
it is illegal to prohibit the ex-offender from drinking, as is an indefinite probation. The only forever tag is the sexual offender. The you can drink, but you can’t hide!