NCJ Number
110253
Journal
American Jails Volume: 1 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1988) Pages: 6,8
Date Published
1988
Length
2 pages
Annotation
Testing sheriffs' department employees (jail personnel) for drugs and AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) raises three potential types of constitutional violations.
Abstract
First, it is governmental intrusion into nonwork-related activities. Second, it involves a state invasion of an obviously private and personal act of urination or the invasion of the body by drawing blood. Third, it allows the government to obtain confidential medical information located in the urine. This third constitutional issue involves the 5th and 14th amendments' due process clauses. The 5th amendment is generally applicable to the Federal Government, and the 14th amendment binds the States by requiring that no State may deprive a person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law. Drug and AIDS testing may involve a protected property interest (a job) or a liberty interest (one's reputation) and require that certain procedural hearing rights be established prior to the imposition of punishment to ensure due process guarantees. Under substantive due process, drug and AIDS tests may, by their nature, offend the principles of decency in a civilized society because they are so invasive of the body. Other practical concerns are also subsumed in the constitutional challenges to such testing, e.g., confidentiality and discrimination.