NCJ Number
156585
Journal
Indiana Law Journal Volume: 66 Dated: (Spring 1991) Pages: 579-607
Date Published
1991
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This analysis of drug policies and recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions argues that the Court, despite its recent ruling in the cases of Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives' Association and National Treasury Employees' Union v. Von Raab, should not uphold a measure making welfare benefits conditional on passing a drug test.
Abstract
In the Skinner and Von Raab decisions, the Court upheld drug testing of railroad and customs employees without warrants, probable cause, or individualized suspicion. These decisions signified the Court's readiness to abandon its presumed role of dispassionate arbiter and to join the legislative and executive branches in the crusade to eliminate the drug problem. Although eliminating drug abuse from the welfare population is a worthy goal, achieving it by means of wholesale drug testing may exact an undesirable toll from society. It would produce a class of desperate, addicted individuals while undermining our common belief in the inviolability of constitutional guarantees. Footnotes