Drug Testing

Drug Testing in the United States

Federal drug-testing programs involve searches of persons and so are covered by the 4th Amendment. To date, the Court has held that they can be conducted without either warrants or even any indication of drug use by those who must take them. It did so in two 1989 cases.

They involved mandatory drug testing for:

drug enforcement officers of the United States Customs Service who carry firearms, National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab, and
railroad workers following a train accident, Skinner v. Federal Railway Labor Executives Association.

The Court has also upheld an Oregon school district’s drug-testing program, Vernonia School District v. Acton, 1995. The program required all students who take part in school sports to agree to be tested for drugs. That ruling was extended in Board of Education of Pottowatomie County v. Earls in 2002. There, the court upheld the random testing of students who want to participate in any competitive extracurricular activity.

Introduction to Drug Testing

According to the Encyclopedia of the American Constitution, increasingly through the 1980s, federal and state governments required testing of a person’s blood, urine, breath, and hair to try to determine recent drug or alcohol use. President Ronald Reagan’s Executive Order No. 12564 hastened this trend by ordering federal executive agencies to help. (…) Government drug testing of employees, students, and others such as persons on probation, is now a widespread and entrenched phenomenon. The chief constitutional limit on such testing is the fourth amendment prohibition on unreasonable search and seizures.

Drug Testing of Students

Drug Testing in the Criminal Justice System

This section covers the topics below related with Drug Testing :

Drugs

Testing in relation with Drug Testing

Law Enforcement

Personnel or Corrections

Personnel

Drug testing in relation to Public Officers

Find out in this American legal Encyclopedia the information on Drug testing in relation to Public Officers (and in the context of local government law).