NCJ Number
165865
Journal
Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Volume: 86 Issue: 4 Dated: (Summer 1996) Pages: 1265-1303
Date Published
1996
Length
39 pages
Annotation
This note critiques the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton, 115 S. Ct. 2386 (1995), which addressed whether a school district could impose random and suspicionless urinalysis drug testing on high school student athletes.
Abstract
The Court held that such testing did not violate students' fourth amendment rights and was therefore constitutional. In so deciding, the Court expanded the permissible realm of drug testing contexts beyond the limits defined in two earlier decisions, Skinner v. National Railway Labor Executive Association and National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab. In those cases, the Court stated that the government could only transcend the fourth amendment requirement of individualized suspicion where it had a compelling interest at stake, namely a threat to public safety or national security. The Vernonia Court argued that, because high school athletes have decreased expectations of privacy by virtue of their participation in extracurricular athletics, the suspicionless drug testing was constitutionally justified. This note argues that the Supreme Court overstepped the boundaries of the fourth amendment in two ways. First, by finding the interest of the Vernonia District in promulgating the drug testing to be "compelling," given the paucity of the evidence of athletes using drugs; and second, by holding that student athletes have diminished privacy expectations solely due to the structure and requirements of the athletic program. The note concludes that the Court reached its decision primarily for policy reasons, specifically the eradication of drug use among America's children. This goal, however, does not justify the erosion of constitutional privacy rights of children. 286 footnotes