Justice Dept. Drug Tests Set; Court Challenge Seen

Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III on Monday set forth final plans to begin random testing of about 4,700 Justice Department employees, a move expected to spark an immediate challenge from attorneys at the department who say that such screening is unconstitutional.

“Every federal workplace must work toward the goal of a drug-free workplace, but it is doubly important for the agency with primary responsibility for enforcing the nation’s laws . . . to ensure that its employees are drug-free,” Meese declared in giving Justice Department workers the 60-day notice required before testing can begin.

More than three dozen lawyers in the department quickly pledged to take their boss to federal court and try to to block the testing, which they say violates their Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government.

“This is a very sober and reluctant step that these employees are taking,” Stephen Sachs, a private attorney, said of the lawsuit he will file today in U.S. District Court here on behalf of the government lawyers.

‘Demeaning and Humiliating’

“But these people feel insulted. These are lawyers who deeply respect the Justice Department as an institution, who have given the department a lot of good service and who feel that (the drug-testing plan) is not only unconstitutional, it’s also demeaning and humiliating,” Sachs said in an interview.

A separate union of Justice Department employees was considering joining the court challenge. “I’m outraged that the department is trying to do something like this,” Stuart Smith, president of the local union, said. Although department employees crack jokes about bringing flasks of urine to work, he said: “People are really put off by this.”

In defending his controversial plan, Meese--a point man in the Administration’s prolonged effort to establish “a drug-free workplace” in the federal government--will have to show the courts that the sensitive nature of some of his employees’ duties warrants testing them at random, a method of detecting past drug use that the courts sometimes have viewed as an intrusion into an individual’s private affairs.

Positions to Be Weighed

The Justice Department plans to begin random testing of about 4,700 employees who are either “reasonably suspected” of drug use, have access to top-secret classified information, prosecute criminal cases, were appointed by the President or handle controlled substances (such as evidence custodians).

The department asserted that “the testing procedures are 100% reliable” and said it will order any employee who tests positive to enter a drug rehabilitation or counseling program. Positive test results would not, however, be used as evidence for criminal prosecution, it said.

The Justice Department first announced the drug-testing plan last fall. It was the second Cabinet department--after transportation--to make such a proposal.

Legal rulings on the matter have been mixed, and in some cases contradictory, on the constitutionality of random testing of government employees. The Supreme Court is expected to decide the issue later this year.