NCJ Number
126571
Journal
Vanderbilt Law Review Volume: 43 Issue: 4 Dated: (May 1990) Pages: 1343-1376
Date Published
1990
Length
34 pages
Annotation
This article examines U.S. Supreme Court decisions bearing upon the government's testing of employees and compares these rulings with jurisprudence involving nondrug-related searches and seizures.
Abstract
The Supreme Court has made it clear in "Skinner" and "Von Raab" that government drug testing is constitutional as long as it meets a reasonableness balancing test. Federal Government testing programs generally follow Executive Order No. 12,564, including individualized suspicion, uniform, and random tests in each program. Some decisions make little of no distinction among the categories. Others incorporate the distinctions as factors in the balancing tests. Because of the ad hoc nature of the balancing test, courts after "Skinner" and "Von Raab" have established no clear standards for drug testing. In the specific area of drug enforcement, the Court has replaced the concrete fourth amendment protections of warrant and probable cause with the malleable balancing test as the basis for a search and seizure. This has made government employees vulnerable to suspicionless searches that may result in dismissal, a substantial deprivation of property, and the imposition of criminal penalties. The ad hoc nature of the balancing test provides no clear indication of how far the government can go in demanding drug tests. 293 footnotes