has he been asked?

But blanket drug testing welfare recipients without either a warrant nor suspicion sends the message that poor people don't have constitutional rights against unreasonable, warrantless searches. Good call on the part of the judge.

is morally and legally wrong.

The number of people on welfare that test positive is tiny. How in he** do these politicians think that someone who is barely putting a roof over their heads and food on the table can afford illegal drugs?

It is because in their minds anyone on any form of public assistance is a "taker" that is scamming the system. I hear the stories about people on SNAP purchasing lobsters, having the latest clothes and handbags and driving Escalades. That is pure fantasy.

Of course there are scammers. We have hundreds of thousands of them in New York on Wall Street. You deal with the scammers but you don't punish the deserving.

Pope Francis has it right - the wealthy should beware because they are not going to enter heaven if they deny food, housing, healthcare and opportunity to the poor.

It was all about Rick Scott profiting from the testing itself via some of the companies contracted out for the testing he owned.

This is how pols "do good". They won't make enough money "doing bad", don't "do bad", and that translates into "doing good."

I guess child abuse by substance abuse ( as defined by the governor) is OK if you're an affluent Republican, but terrible if you are poor or minority.

Hypocrit, hypocrit, hypocrit.

against the right wing gestapo laws.

so there are legit libertarian arguments against such law.

But turning down federal assistance for health care (not to mention mass transit) is not criminally abusive to a child?

Welcome to DU.

Scott is a mean person and this law was a bad idea. Hopefully, this failure will hurt Scott in the 2014 governor's race

n/t

How about a little "everybody mind their own fucking business"?

Unless we extend the testing to everyone drawing on public funds, like Congressmembers (!), let's just leave the issue the fuck alone...

Judge Mary S. Scriven of United States District Court wrote in her decision that the state’s testing requirement was unconstitutional. “The court finds there is no set of circumstances under which the warrantless, suspicionless drug testing at issue in this case could be constitutionally applied,” she wrote. The ruling made permanent an earlier, temporary ban by the judge.

Indeed!

how about legislators find some full time living wage jobs, so we won't have to be on any form of welfare, and therefore be able to take as much or no drugs as we see fit! i like the mind your own biz meme!

HAPPY NEW YEAR, YALL!

Why would anyone vote for this criminal. He help defraud billions of dollars for the government and ignorant, racist, America hating republicans vote for him.

yes INDEED

perhaps Minnesota should follow Florida's lead

(for my state)

resting on their impaired judgment than a welfare recipient. Politicians and some of their loony decisions cost far more than all of welfare combined.

including the children. We should have a zero-tolerance policy on his lack of compassion and common sense.

They are not the majority, but they also share in his hard-headedness. Not the easiest minds to change.

shrunken heart of ol Rick Scott. Doesn't he have shares in a drug testing company?

He transferred his interest to a trust in his wife's name, and that supposedly has been sold. However, he's clearly shilling for the health industry, so that he's welcomed back with open arms--hopefully after being jailed before the next election.

Best news all year....

This kind of logic makes my head hurt.

...to have a colonoscopy just to make sure their heads aren't up there...

Some common sense on this issue. The only people who benefit from these unconstitutional laws are the owners of the for-profit drug testing industry-- people like Gov. Scott and his wife.

Scott owns a chunk of the company that got paid for the tests. Their assets should be seized, liquidated, and put back into the FL treasury.

Nothing wrong with removing a child's parent/s?

Zero-tolerance--if drug use in the home is itself such a concern, he should be hauling away drunks, too. They really damage the family. Oh..zero tolerance: one beer and it's jail for you, foster care for your kids.

pRick scott doesn't even deserve the honorific, "Mr."

What's the 4th amendment for, anyway, besides keeping the 3rd from taking the fifth?

The House drug task force that introduced the Barton-Solomon bill also commissioned a report, by attorney Mark deBernardo, which concluded that mandatory drug testing of Representatives is unconstitutional.

The report, Legal Issues Regarding Drug Testing of House Members and Staff, says "If mandatory , suspicionless drug testing of Members of Congress is the inevitable policy of the House, some very good lawyering and very creative legal thinking would be necessary to create even a 20 percent chance of prevailing in court."

The report found that the same constitutional problems would make testing of all Congressional staff difficult, but testing employees in positions that require high security would be more feasible (Francesca Contiguglia, "House Moves Closer to Drug Tests," Roll Call, April 9, 1998, p. 1).

http://www.ndsn.org/mayjun98/capitol2.html

Mandatory drug testing of all members of the U.S. House of Representatives and their staff. "unconstitutional." WTF!

that the true benefit of this would be to the drug testing companies since they would get paid for every single test , and the insignificant number of people that tested positive would not come near whatever saving would be realized IF ANY AT ALL

I hope Florida can get this jackass out!

You were a criminal when you somehow got off after running a Medicare fraud scheme in the sunshine state, and now you think those who you can't bilk for money illegitimately can be milked for money legitimately by trying to pass this law.

Well, you can't.

I look forward to the beginning of this primary season, because you are stinking up the state I lived in for 30 years. I know a lot of people who I left behind there who are going to do everything in their power to boot your sorry ass out of the Tallahassee.

Truly, I wish I could spit on that glossy brainless head of yours at that very moment, you stain.