The timing is not spectacular.

As Pennsylvania progressively relaxes restrictions on the retail sales of beer and wine, the state Superior Court has ruled that DUI suspects can’t be punished for refusing a blood test.

The three-judge panel ruled that a Chester County man convicted of driving under the influence was wrongfully penalized during his sentencing for having refused to submit to the blood test, which would have measured his blood alcohol concentratin (BAC) and determined if other drugs were in his system.

The judges said the punishment for refusing the test violated the driver’s constitutional rights.

Senior Judge John Musmanno wrote that the court based its decision on a 2016 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in a North Dakota case that blood tests without a warrant are an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.

In the Chester County case, Hemant Kohli was arrested for DUI on New Year’s Day 2013. He refused two requests for a blood draw but was found guilty anyway — the police officers’ testimony was enough for a conviction.

It was Kohli’s third DUI conviction in 10 years. He was sentenced to 18 to 36 months in prison — that’s in accordance with state law mandating prison for not less than a year for anyone who “refused testing of blood or breath” and has been convicted of DUI for a third time.

Kohli appealed on the grounds that the state sentencing law was inconsistent with the ruling in the North Dakota case. The state Superior Court agreed.

Musmanno wrote: As “criminalizing the failure to consent to blood testing following a driving under the influence arrest was unconstitutional,” the Chester County court improperly relied on the Pennsylvania statute during sentencing.

The Superior Court ruling ought to send shock waves through the electorate of Pennsylvania. Our governance, yielding to a culture of instant gratification, is making the availability and consumption of alcohol ever-faster and easier. Toss in a driver’s casual glance at a text message on the smart phone, and it’s a formula for disaster.

Conversely, law enforcement officers now must request and receive a warrant for every blood test they deem necessary to collect as evidence in every suspected case of driving while under the influence.

These twin developments — the relaxation of restrictions on alcoholic beverage sales and the weakening of blood tests as an evidentiary weapon in DUI investigations — sends a dangerous message — a message that requires a prompt, firm response from Gov. Tom Wolf and the General Assembly.