A new breath test for suspected drunken drivers is being implemented in Passaic and other counties despite a warning from the clerk of the state Supreme Court against expanding use of the machine, which has had its reliability questioned. The continuing rollout has outraged defense lawyers and prompted the state bar association to consider asking the court to further restrict the use of evidence from the new machine, Alcotest 7110 MKIII-C. The clash between the judicial branch and the state attorney general’s office comes as sentencings for thousands of DWI cases around the state are on hold pending a hearing this fall on the machine’s reliability. The Alcotest has replaced the Breathalyzer, in use for a half-century, in 13 of the state’s 21 counties. Lawyers this week began complaining after learning that Alcotest was being placed this month in Atlantic, Cape May, Passaic and Sussex counties. Monmouth and Hudson counties are to get the machine in July, with Essex and Bergen counties getting it in October. Detractors say the Alcotest machine is not properly configured and that the rollout defies a March 15 letter from Supreme Court clerk Stephen W. Townsend that noted ``no further expansion of the Alcotest project should be undertaken without obtaining prior authorization from the Supreme Court.’’ The letter added that such approval would not be likely. The letter was to the special master the court appointed to oversee the Alcotest reliability hearing and was sent to all lawyers, including the Attorney General’s office. The rollout is actually being overseen by an arm of the Attorney General’s office, the state Division of Criminal Justice. Division spokesman John Hagerty said last Friday, ``The letter does not have the effect of an order.’’ Lawyers conceded that the letter lacks such force, but said they could not recall another instance in which the court’s clerk had been so snubbed. Alcotest is made by a Durango, Colo.-based U.S. unit of the German company Draeger. The machine measures blood-alcohol levels using two independent tests and leaves much less room for human error than the Breathalyzer test.