The OWI Stop
Iowa Code § 321J.9 — a refusal revokes the license for one year, and a test over the limit for 180 days
An officer with reasonable grounds to believe a driver is violating the OWI laws, or after a crash with injury or death, may ask for a preliminary screening breath test. Its result helps decide whether to arrest or to request a chemical test, and is not used in court except to show the chemical test was properly requested.
- A driver is deemed to have consented to a chemical test of blood, breath or urine when there are reasonable grounds and a listed condition, such as an OWI arrest, a crash with injury, or a refused screening test.
- The officer chooses which of the three is tested; refusing breath or urine counts as a refusal, and refusing blood leads to an offer of one of the others.
| What happens | License revoked for |
|---|---|
| What happensRefusing the test, no prior revocation | License revoked forOne year |
| What happensRefusing the test, after a prior revocation | License revoked forTwo years |
| What happensA test at or over the limit, no prior revocation | License revoked for180 days |
| What happensA test at or over the limit, after a prior revocation | License revoked forOne year |
Ten days to ask for a hearing. The notice of revocation comes with a form, and it must be returned within ten days of receipt or the right to a hearing to contest the revocation is lost. A timely request gets a hearing within 45 days.
Testing is also limited by the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court of the United States has held that a breath test may be taken without a warrant as part of a lawful arrest for drunk driving and a blood test may not; that a driver may not be criminally punished for refusing a blood test where no warrant was obtained; and that the natural fall of alcohol in the blood does not by itself create an emergency excusing a warrant in every case, which is decided case by case on all the circumstances. Those holdings are a floor: a state's own constitution and statutes can give more protection than they do, never less.
Sources for this section (7)
- Iowa Code § 321J.5 — Preliminary screening test
- Iowa Code § 321J.6 — Implied consent to test
- Iowa Code § 321J.9 — Refusal to submit — revocation
- Iowa Code § 321J.12 — Test result revocation
- Iowa Code § 321J.13 — Hearing on revocation — appeal
- Birchfield v. North Dakota, 579 U.S. 438 (2016) — A breath test may be taken incident to arrest, a blood draw needs a warrant
- Missouri v. McNeely, 569 U.S. 141 (2013) — The natural fall of blood alcohol is not by itself an emergency justifying a warrantless draw
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Iowa attorney.