Public Worker Searches OKd by High Court

The Supreme Court ruled today that government employees do not have a total right to privacy at work and said their employers may conduct searches when there is reason to suspect misconduct.

In a plurality opinion by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, the court said, “Individuals do not lose Fourth Amendment rights merely because they work for the government instead of a private employer.

“The operational realities of the workplace, however, may make some employees’ expectations of privacy unreasonable when an intrusion is by a supervisor rather than a law enforcement official.”

Setting a Standard

The decision--which for the first time sets a standard for public employer searches--could influence the ongoing debate about drug testing of public employees, which opponents have charged violates the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures.

Today’s ruling held that an employer need not have probable cause to conduct a search, but merely “reasonable grounds for suspecting that the search will turn up evidence that the employee is guilty of misconduct, or that the search is necessary for non-investigative, work-related purposes such as to retrieve a needed file.”

The effects of the ruling may be limited, however, because only three justices joined O’Connor in her opinion.

‘Devoid of Content’

In a separate opinion concurring in the judgment, Justice Antonin Scalia chastised his colleagues for setting “a standard so devoid of content that it produces rather than eliminates uncertainty in this field.”

Justices Harry Blackmun, William Brennan, Thurgood Marshall and John Paul Stevens dissented.

The case involved Magno Ortega, a psychiatrist who was chief of professional education at Napa State Hospital in California from 1964 until Sept. 22, 1981.

On July 30, 1981, the executive director of the hospital decided to investigate Ortega’s management practices and Ortega was placed on administrative leave.

While he was on leave, hospital employees searched his office and seized personal items from his desk and file cabinets that were used in administrative proceedings that led to his discharge. Ortega then filed a lawsuit against the hospital, alleging violations of his Fourth Amendment rights.