The State - News from July 26, 1987

A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting city officials from conducting drug-abuse tests on 48 candidates for jobs in the San Francisco Fire Department. The applicants, scheduled to begin training next month, represent the first firefighters scheduled for hiring since 1982, and more than half of them are women or minorities, said Shauna Marshall of Equal Rights Advocates, which brought the suit. “This is harassment,” said Marshall. “We don’t think it’s coincidental that it’s the first time such tests are being used is when they finally get around to hiring some minorities.” U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel set an Aug. 3 hearing on a request for a permanent injunction against the tests.