Drug Test News

NO PISS TEST FOR POLITICIANS FEDERAL COURT RULES

Teachers And Welfare Recipients Aren't So Lucky

By Steven Wishnia

NEW ORLEANS - - It's unconstitutional for Louisiana to require random drug tests from elected officials, a federal appeals court ruled in late December.

The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling striking down the 1997 law, calling it a "well-crafted opinion." The law was signed by Gov. Mike Foster as part of a package requiring anyone receiving "anything of economic value" from the state to submit to drug-testing (High Witness News, Nov. '97). Those laws primarily affect state employees and welfare recipients.

"It's no big surprise," says New Orleans attorney William Rittenberg, who represented State Rep. Arthur Morrell (D-New Orleans), one of two legislators who challenged the law. The state, he notes, enacted the law after the U. S. Supreme Court struck down a Georgia law requiring drug tests for all candidates for state office.

Louisiana officials argued that their law was different from Georgia's because it only applied to people actually holding state office. But in 1998, Federal District Judge Eldon Fallon dismissed the logic: "If it is improper to drug-test a candidate for elected office, it seems incongruous to hold that once an individual is actually in office that person is somehow more susceptible to the very same search."

Gov. Foster's office did not return phone calls.

However, the decision does not affect Louisiana's other drug-testing laws. All state employees are tested before hiring, while those in "safety sensitive" jobs, including teachers and school janitors, are tested at random, according to Joe Cook, head of the state American Civil Liberties Union. Welfare recipients are asked 20 questions about drug use when they come in for recertification with those giving "suspicious" answers referred for testing.

The ACLU, which represented the other legislator in the case, the late Rep. Avery Alexander, is considering a full-scale challenge to the state's drug testing policies. "Intimidation and control is what this is all about," Cook declares. "There's no scientific justification."

He accuses Gov. Foster of wanting a "clean-urine loyalty oath" from everyone in Louisiana. As virually everyone in the state uses some kind of government service, from roads to hospitals to public schools, Cook argues that the "anything of economic value" clause could easily be stretched to cover all state residents.

Might that include lawyers who sue the state and win attorneys' fees? "They're not gonna make me pee in a cup," Rittenberg growls.

By Steven Wishnia - ARTICLE TAKEN FROM "HIGH TIMES" - May 2000