NCJ Number
127819
Date Published
1990
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This chapter reviews five U.S. Supreme Court cases pertaining to regulatory and administrative searches by government employees.
Abstract
One case holds that searches and seizures conducted by public school officials constitute State action under the fourth amendment of the U.S. Constitution; further, a warrant and probable cause are not required for such searches; the standard for such a search is "reasonableness under all the circumstances." Another Supreme Court ruling holds that government employers do not need a warrant or probable cause to conduct work-related searches of their employees' offices, desks, or file cabinets; in another case the Court ruled that a probation department does not need a warrant or probable cause to search a probationer's home. A fourth case holds that the collection and testing of an employee's urine constitutes a search and seizure and that employees in safety-sensitive positions can be compelled to submit to urine testing in the absence of a "reasonable suspicion" that drugs have been used by the subject. The final case reviewed upholds suspicionless urine testing of government employees who are promoted to drug-interdiction positions or positions requiring them to be armed.