Court strikes down random drug testing for school employees

Source: www.volokh.com

Court Strikes Down Random Drug Test Policy for All Public School Employees: From Jones v. Graham County Bd. of Educ. (N.C. Ct. App. June 2) (some paragraph breaks added), an interesting discussion of the issue:

(Show the case excerpt.)

We first address Plaintiffs' contention that the policy violates Article I, Section 20 of the North Carolina Constitution, which provides as follows:

General warrants, whereby any officer or other person may be commanded to search suspected places without evidence of the act committed, or to seize any person or persons not named, whose offense is not particularly described and supported by evidence, are dangerous to liberty and shall not be granted.

Plaintiffs assert that “n its face, the ... policy violates the prohibition against general warrants<,>” and that the policy violates Article I, Section 20's guarantee against unreasonable searches conducted by the government.

We are inclined to agree that the policy violates the prohibition against general warrants. See In re Stumbo, 582 S.E.2d 255, 266 (2003) (Martin, J., concurring) (“

ermitting government actors ‘to search suspected places without evidence of the act committed’ ... is tantamount to issuing a general warrant expressly prohibited by the North Carolina Constitution.”). However, because we hold, for the reasons set forth below, that the Board's policy violates Article I, Section 20's guarantee against unreasonable searches, we do not reach the question of whether the policy violates the prohibition against general warrants.



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People just go drug testing crazy. I understand if there is a problem, but just because the person works at a school is not enough.

We say, you're on drugs. It's all just paraphrase's the same message. You don't think they way we want you too. Submit to our mind control.

than we do against our employers. America is funny that way.

that's the case in most countries and it makes sense.

employers should have significantly more rights to limit employee behavior (at work) than govt. does to prohibit activity outright.

a private employer should be able to fire you if you call your boss an asshole.

it doesn't follow that govt. should be allowed to prosecute you.

fwiw, there are millions of employers in this country, but few govt's and you can "escape" an employer (you can choose another job if you don't).

that's how it should be, and that's how it is.

Employers use it when they want to get rid of a few employees,especially the higher paid ones.Me ex-employers did it to several of us,but they used the excuse that they recieved an email naming us as users.I was an occassional user,but because I was a big guy with a little fat I failed the test.Another skinny guy who smokes all the time past the test.

where random drug testing was allowed by my (public ) employer.

i currently work in a state that recognizes a right to privacy (WA state constitution), and thus my public employer needs a "reasonable suspicion".