NCJ Number
126332
Date Published
1990
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Two recent United States Supreme Court decisions have resolved some of the constitutional questions surrounding employee drug testing, but several important questions remain unanswered.
Abstract
Drug testing programs have been challenged as violative of several provisions of the Constitution, but only fourth amendment challenges focusing on search issues have been successful. In separate decisions in 1989, the Court assessed the validity of Federal Railroad Administration regulations that mandated breath, blood, and urine testing of railroad employees after major train accidents and the United States Customs Service program that required all employees seeking promotion or transfer to drug enforcement jobs to undergo urinalysis. Both decisions upheld mandatory urinalysis of certain categories of public employees in the absence of reasonable or individualized suspicion and thus arguably create a drug-testing exception to the traditional warrant and probable-cause requirements of the fourth amendment. The constitutionality of random testing programs and uniform testing programs has not been determined, although the Court might well uphold these programs so long as they serve a compelling governmental interest. 142 references