Army to Resume Drug Tests for Civilian Employees

Taking advantage of an appeals court ruling earlier this week, the Army on Friday ordered a resumption of random drug testing of civilian employees in certain critical jobs.

“The directive went out today,” said Paige Eversole, an Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon. “It orders resumption of the program effective immediately.”

The move had been expected since Tuesday, when a federal appeals court struck down a preliminary injunction that had stopped the drug-testing program a month ago.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it was staying the injunction granted to employee unions while it considered the legal merits of the case.

The employee unions filed suit to stop a program under which any civilian worker in a so-called “critical” job can be tested at random for evidence of drug use. About 9,400 Army civilians are subject to the testing because they work in such fields as security, aviation and law enforcement.

Men and women on active military duty are subject to random drug testing. The extension of that testing to civilian workers began last year.

‘Excessively Intrusive’

U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan ruled against the Army on March 1 and issued a preliminary injunction to stop the random testing of civilians, concluding that the practice amounted to an “excessively intrusive” search prohibited by the Constitution.

The suit challenging the Army was brought by public employee unions representing civilian Army employees at Ft. Stewart, Fla.; Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md.; and the Sharp Army Depot in Lathrop, Calif.

The unions have vowed to pursue their challenge. No date has been set for the appeals court to hear arguments in the case.