A coalition of conservative activists are warning that a federal law mandating kill-switches in vehicles poses serious constitutional violations.
The Biden-era Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) laid down the mandate when it became law in 2022.
Activists Terri Hall and JoAnn Flemming, alongside nearly 200 others, sent a letter to Sen. Ted Cruz (R–TX) last month urging him, as chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, to prioritize repealing the order requiring kill-switches in vehicles.
During the Republican Party of Texas convention on Saturday, Hall spearheaded an effort to bring attention to the issue, with delegates holding signs calling for the repeal during Cruz’s speech.
Kill-switches were originally introduced as a way to reduce traffic fatalities caused by drunk or otherwise impaired driving.
The IIJA orders the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to passively monitor a driver’s performance to identify impairment, and prevent or limit vehicle operation if impairment is detected; passively and accurately detect whether a driver’s blood alcohol concentration is at or above the legal limit, and prevent or limit vehicle operation if that limit is detected; or use a combination of those systems.
However, Hall and Flemming state that using “passive” in this context would require the system to always be operating, leading to serious privacy violations against every American citizen. They argue that the system outlined by the NHTSA can be used for warrantless surveillance, which would violate the Fourth Amendment.
In addition, they wrote that the technology used to disable the vehicle “does not pass constitutional muster since it fails to afford drivers any due process, and would, in effect, try and convict a driver in real-time of a criminal act completely outside the protective framework of a court of law in a trial by a jury of one’s peers.”
Disabled vehicles also pose a serious safety concern for other motorists, as they can litter roadways, leading to additional traffic incidents.
The NHTSA stated in a 2026 report that, to date, no in-vehicle technologies in production can passively measure blood alcohol concentration (BAC) or breath alcohol concentration (BrAC) at or above 0.08 g/dL.
Therefore, the agency has not begun rulemaking to implement the requirement.
H.R. 1137 has been introduced in this session of Congress to repeal the NHTSA requirement to install kill-switches and other monitoring devices in vehicles. It is sitting in the House Committee on Energy and Commerce awaiting a hearing.
In the meantime, U.S. Rep. Michael Cloud (R–Victoria) spearheaded an amendment to an appropriations bill in committee earlier this month that effectively terminates the Biden era requirement.
“We cannot allow our Constitutional liberties to be shredded or create a world where every American driver becomes a node for data gathering,” Cloud told Breitbart News in a written statement.
