Judge Bans U.S. Prisons Drug Tests

A judge Thursday barred nationwide mandatory drug checks for 13,000 federal prison workers, declaring it a violation of workers’ rights against unreasonable searches.

U.S. District Judge Stanley Weigel issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of a random urinalysis drug-testing program initiated by the Bureau of Prisons in the first phase of a program to test all federal employees.

Weigel read a summary of his decision from the bench, ruling the program was a violation of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches. Last month, Weigel forbade the government from going ahead with the tests until he could rule on a union request for a preliminary injunction.

The government argued it needed the testing program in prisons for safety and to prevent blackmail of prison guards and other prison workers.

‘Police State’

But Weigel said the government’s desire to deter drug use in society cannot be used to justify random testing. If it was used, it could be the basis to eventually justify mass testing of all society and that would be “the beginning of a police state.”

He warned that rights guaranteed by the Constitution cannot “bend to public clamor.”

Under a 1986 order by President Reagan, all federal agencies must come up with a drug-testing program for workers in “sensitive” jobs

Several of the plans have been challenged in federal court by weather forecasters, overseas teachers, civilian Defense Department workers and an overall challenge to the Reagan order itself.

The bulk of the attacks on the new rules was launched by the 750,000-member American Federation of Government Employees.

Weigel said: “The court recognizes the serious problem of drug use facing the nation, but the means of combatting it must be lawful. This is not.”

He rejected a request for a stay of his order while federal attorneys appeal the decision to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The testing ban does not affect new job applicants to the Bureau of Prisons because the union, which brought the suit, has no authority to represent new job applicants.

‘Impaired Ability’

Weigel’s order forbids random mandatory urinalysis of employees without “reasonable suspicion of drug use or impaired ability to do their job.”

Weigel said the record presented by the Department of Justice contained “not one instance of any safety problem resulting from employee drug use.”

“Nor has the government shown any reason to anticipate that such problems are imminent,” he said.

He reasoned that the government has an interest in deterring drug use throughout society, but “that interest does not justify random testing.”

Challenges to drug testing of all kinds have mushroomed throughout the country as more and more programs are instituted.

A 1986 Georgia case by the American Federation of Government Employees barred drug testing of civilian employees in critical positions at Army bases unless there was reasonable suspicion of drug use.

Urinalysis testing has been barred in some police departments, for firefighters in Plainfield, N.J., and for sheriff’s deputies in Passaic County, N.J.