Drug Testing in the Rehnquist Era (From New War on Drugs: Symbolic Politics and Criminal Justice Policy, P 123-139, 1998, Eric L. Jensen and Jurg Gerber, eds. -- See NCJ-170568)

• NCJ Number: 170576
• Author(s): D W Crowley
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 17 pages
• Sale Source: Anderson Publishing Co
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: DCC.

Annotation

This paper examines how political and social developments have joined with shifts in judicial philosophy to lead to the legitimization of drug testing in various occupations and settings.

Abstract

Some scholars have interpreted U.S. Supreme Court decisions regarding drug testing to endorse only drug testing related to drug-free job performance necessary for public safety; however, this interpretation underestimates the ease with which the balancing style and a perceived national crisis can combine to justify drug testing even when public safety is not at issue. This is shown by the Supreme Court's 1995 endorsement of random drug testing for student athletes in "Veronica School District 47J v. Acton." Other issues that undermine the supposed benefits of drug testing are questionable reliability of test findings, evaluations that show tests are not a deterrent to drug use, and violation of the long-held values regarding the importance of bodily privacy and the limitations of government in requiring that people reveal information about their bodies. This paper argues that the reasons for the expansion of drug testing have had little to do with real developments in the use of drugs. Rather, the increase in drug testing was a policy developed largely for symbolic reasons in response to a socially constructed problem.