A TIMELINE OF DRUG TESTING IN THE UNITED STATES
and the slow degradation of the fourth constitutional amendment.
From Nixon to Bush (both of them), each successive regime has made
the Fourth Amendment a casualty in the Drug War.
- 1791 - The Right of the People to Be Secure in Their Persons,
Houses, Papers and Effects Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures, Shall
Not be Violated; And No Warrant Shall Issue, but upon Probable Cause, Supported
by Oath or Affirmation, and Particularly Describing the Place to Be Searched
and the Person or Things to Be Seized. - The Fourth Amendment of the United
States Constitution
- 1967 - Seeking election to the Presidency, candidate Richard
Nixon declares law-and-order the number one goal of his proposed administration
with special emphasis on a War on Drugs: "As I look over the problems in this
country" he told supporters at Disneyland, "I see one that stands out particularly
- the problem of narcotics."
"I believe in civil rights," Nixon averred. "But the first civil right
of every American is to be free from violence, and we are going to have an
administration that restores that right in the United States of America."
- 1969 -Washington, D.C. Department of Corrections tests the
urine of 129 District prisoners in an effort to prove a casual relationship
between crime and drugs. Since prisoners, by definition, have mitigated rights,
no constitutional violation is cited. An imperfect study at best, the results
are ambiguous and debatable.
- 1971 - Acting on recommendations from the White House, the
Pentagon prepares to randomly drug test soldiers returning from Vietnam.
Since drug use is an infraction of military code and automatically results
in a dishonorable discharge, many servicemen would be placed in legal jeopardy,
and the result would be a public relations nightmare. To solve the problem
President Nixon - acting as commander-in-chief - sends a one page memo to
the secretary of defense ordering that drug use will no longer be considered
a crime under the military code of justice. This single act reverses decades
of military policy and simultaneously introduces random urine testing as
a matter of public policy.
- 1975 - the U.S. Supreme Court declared constitutional an "administrative
search exception" to the Fourth Amendment [Committee for GI Rights v. Callaway
518 F. 2D 466, 474 D.C. Cir. 1975] with regard to random drug testing of military
personnel, reasoning that the state’s strong public interest to ensure military
readiness outweighs the privacy interests of servicemen who already serve
under considerably diminished Fourth Amendment rights.
- 1985 - Although the Fourth Amendment protects the privacy
rights of citizens from government intrusion, the private sector has traditionally
had much less restriction. By 1985 urine testing was a $100 million business.
Twenty-five percent of the Fortune 500 corporations had some kind of urine-testing
program in place. Companies like Federal Express fired employees on the basis
of a single positive drug test despite a federal survey that found such testing
procedures to be in error at least twenty percent of the time. According to
government figures the percentage of false-positive results at many labs was
much higher.
- 1986 - President Ronald Reagan issued Executive Order 12564
requiring federal agencies to institute urine testing programs for the purpose
of creating ‘drug-free federal workplaces.’
- 1986 - The United State’s Third Circuit Court of Appeals,
citing the administrative search exception, approved, for the first time,
mass urinalysis procedures in the public workplace. In Shoemaker v Handel
[795 F. 2d. 1136 [3rd cir. 1986] five well-known jockeys brought action challenging
New Jersey Racing Commission regulations requiring all official jockeys,
trainers or grooms to submit to breathalyzers and urine testing. The jockeys
argued that such testing was unreasonable and thus unconstitutional, absent
of individualized suspicion. The Third Circuit Court disagreed stating that
"warrantless searches or seizures by voluntary participants in [a] highly
[state] regulated industry... are reasonable" and that "The states’s interest
in the revenue generated by wagering and the vulnerability of the industry
to untoward influences" overrides the individual’s constitutional right to
privacy.
- 1987 - The United States Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals,
citing the administrative search exception, finds urine testing of federal
prison guards to be constitutional [McDonell v. Hunter, 809 F. 2d 1302 ]
- 1988 - The United States Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals,
citing the administrative search exception, finds urine testing of nuclear
power plant employees to be constitutional [Rushton v. Nebraska Public Power
District, 844 F. 2D 562]
- 1989 - The United States Supreme Court, citing the administrative
search exception, finds constitutional a Custom Service program requiring
all Custom Service employees seeking promotions to certain "sensitive positions
" to submit to urinalysis regardless of whether their existed probable cause
or individualized suspicion of drug use. The testing policy had the potential
to infringe upon the Fourth Amendment rights of over 120,000 Federal employees
despite statements from the Commissioner for the Customs Service maintaining
that the workplace was "largely drug-free" to begin with. Affirming the state’s
interest in maintaining a drug-free workplace and the protection of "truly
sensitive information" over the individual interests of its employees, the
Court reasoned that those individual seeking employment in sensitive positions
must assume diminished expectations of privacy. With this decision the Court
demonstrated that urinalysis would now be upheld even when there is no suspicion
of drug use at all.
- 1988 - Congress passes the Drug Free Workplace Act requiring
companies awarded federal contracts to institute drug testing as a condition
of contract.
- 1991 - Congress requires random drug testing for any U.S.
Worker in safety sensitive positions.
- 1995 - The U.S. Supreme Courts, citing a drug crisis that
has reached "epidemic proportions" rules in favor of a Veronia, Washington
School District law mandating mass urinalysis for all high school and junior
high school athletes regardless of individual suspicion. The "epidemic" drug
use cited in the petition before the court resulted in only twelve positive
drug tests in four and a half years since Veronia’s mandatory urinalysis
program had been instituted.
- 1998 - The Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1998 provides federal
funds to small businesses that want to impose drug testing on their employees.
- 1998 - The U.S. Congress overwhelmingly approved legislation
encouraging states to drug test all teenage driver's license applicants.
The provision, included in H.R. 4550, further recommends that states adopt
policies denying licenses to applicants who test positive for drug metabolites.
- 2002 - The U.S. Supreme Court approves a major expansion
of suspicionless student drug testing mandating drug testing for all students
who wish to participate in any extracurricular activities, including, for
example, the chess club, the Honor Society and the marching band. (Board
of Education of Independent School District No. 92 [OK], et al v. Lindsay
Earls et al, No. 01 332). Since adopting the policy in 1998, only three Tecumseh,
Oklahoma students - all athletes - had tested positive for drugs. Writing
for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas ruled that the drug testing policy
was "reasonable," even in the absence of individualized suspicion or an identifiable
school-wide drug problem. "This Court has not required a particularized or
pervasive drug problem before allowing the government to conduct suspicionless
drug testing," Thomas opined. "Indeed, the nationwide drug epidemic makes
the war against drugs a pressing concern in every school."
Thank You to the wonderful people
at High Times Magazine
for this time line.