A district judge ruled that Florida Gov. Rick Scott cannot mandate random drug testing for state employees. 
 
 CNN reports: 
 
 "U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro for the Southern District of Florida said the drug testing of about 85,000 state employees would violate the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and sided with a motion by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 79, which represents about 40,000 of the employees. "But because the union didn't address new hires in its motion, the court 'does not reach the issues of whether such prospective employees can be subjected to pre-employment testing and subsequent random drug testing pursuant to the executive order,' the judge said." 
 
 The New York Times reports that in a statement Scott disagreed with the ruling. 
 
 "As I have repeatedly explained, I believe that drug testing state employees is a common-sense means of ensuring a safe, efficient and productive work force," he said . "That is why so many private employers drug test, and why the public and Florida's taxpayers overwhelmingly support this policy. I respectfully disagree with the court's ruling and will pursue the case on appeal." 
 
 As the Times also explains, drug testing has been in the news a lot lately in Florida. Scott ordered this round of drug testing last year, when he also signed a law that required welfare recipients to undergo drug testing. 
 
 That law is still being challenged in court and earlier this month, The Miami Herald reported that testing welfare recipients ended up costing more than it saved the government. 
 
 The Herald reported: ||||| UPDATE: Gov. Rick Scott said he will appeal a federal judge’s ruling that random, suspicionless drug testing of state workers is unconstitutional. 
 
 “As I have repeatedly explained, I believe that drug testing state employees is a common sense means of ensuring a safe, efficient and productive workforce. That is why so many private employers drug test, and why the public and Florida’s taxpayers overwhelmingly support this policy. I respectfully disagree with the court’s ruling and will pursue the case on appeal,” Scott said in a statement. 
 
 
 
 Gov. Rick Scott’s random drug testing of state workers is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled today. 
 
 Miami U.S. District Judge Ursula Ungaro Thursday morning ruling that random, suspicionless testing of some 85,000 workers violates the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches and seizures also raises doubts about a new state law quietly signed by Scott this spring allowing the governor’s agency heads to require urine tests of new and existing workers. 
 
 “To be reasonable under the Fourth Amendment, a search ordinarily must be based on individualized suspicion of wrongdoing,” Ungaro wrote in her order issued this morning, citing previous U.S. Supreme Court orders which decided that urine tests are considered government searches. 
 
 Scott issued an executive order requiring random drug testing of new hires and all state workers after he took office last year. But he suspended the tests in June after labor unions and the ACLU challenged the order, objecting that the tests are a violation of the constitutional right to protection from unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. Instead, Scott limited his order for all but corrections officers pending the outcome of the Miami case. 
 
 Lawyers for AFSCME, the union representing government workers, and the ACLU argued that drug tests should only be ordered if a worker is suspected of a substance abuse problem or for employees in high-risk jobs. Previous Supreme Court decisions upheld drug testing in those jobs, Ungaro noted, or in cases involving school children. 
 
 Ungaro rejected Scott’s lawyers’ arguments and data showing that about 1 percent of workers at certain agencies who underwent the drug screens tested positive. And she was not persuaded by the governor’s arguments that private sector drug testing shows widespread drug use among workers. She also did not agree that prospective or current state workers could seek employment elsewhere if they object to the tests. New hires, but not current state workers switching jobs, could be required to take the tests, Ungaro ruled. 
 
 “All of the upheld drug-testing policies were tailored to address a specific, serious problem. In contrast, the rationale for the Governor’s policy consists of broad prognostications concerning taxpayer savings, improved public service, and reductions in health and safety risks that result from a drug-free workplace,” Ungaro wrote. 
 
 Lawyers for the union and the ACLU, who had expected Ungaro to rule as she did, nevertheless applauded the decision. 
 
 “With her order today, Judge Ungaro has protected the privacy and personal dignity of tens of thousands of Florida’s best and brightest – our state workforce,” said Alma Gonzalez, Special Counsel of AFSCME Council 79, which brought the suit. “There never was any evidence that state employees used drugs more than any other group so this was a case of using hard working state employees to score political points.” 
 
 Scott’s lawyers argued that the drug tests were necessary to combat drug abuse and ensure a more efficient workforce. 
 
 But individual rights to privacy trumped the government’s interest in those issues, Ungaro found. 
 
 “The fundamental flaw of the EO is that it infringes privacy interests in pursuit of a public interest which, in contrast to the concrete and carefully defined concerns in Skinner, Nat’l Treasury, and Vernonia, is insubstantial and largely speculative,” Ungaro wrote, referring to cases in which the Supreme Court upheld the tests. 
 
 And she also did not agree with Scott’s arguments that the drug tests were a part of Florida’s “transparent” government. 
 
 “The Governor’s reasoning is hardly transparent and frankly obscure. He offers no plausible rationale explaining why the fact that a state employee’s work product and financial status are publically accessible leads to the conclusion that the employee’s expectation of privacy in his or her bodily functions and fluids is then diminished. And in any event, no court has relied upon a policy of transparent government, embodied in laws such as those cited by the Governor, as sufficient to overcome a public employee’s reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of his or her urine. This Court sees no reason to be the first,” she wrote. 
 
 The new law, a priority of Scott’s which goes into effect on July 1, allows Scott’s agency heads to order the drug tests for up to 10 percent of their workers four times a year. Lawmakers did not include any additional funding for the urine tests, which run from $5 to $40, in the measure (HB 1205) in the state’s $70 billion budget, prompting some critics to question which services agencies will cut to absorb the costs. Workers can be fired if the drug screen is confirmed positive. 
 
 Tags: ACLU, AFSCME, drug tests, drug-testing, Rick Scott, state workers
– Florida Gov. Rick Scott's plan to give random drug tests to state workers just ran into a big problem: the Fourth Amendment. A federal judge ruled that Scott's directive to have the state's 85,000 employees submit to surprise tests violates the Constitution's protection against unreasonable search and seizure, reports the Palm Beach Post. The ruling did not address whether new hires can be tested. Judge Usrula Ungaro: “To be reasonable under the Fourth Amendment, a search ordinarily must be based on individualized suspicion of wrongdoing." Governor Scott, announcing plans to appeal: “As I have repeatedly explained, I believe that drug testing state employees is a common sense means of ensuring a safe, efficient and productive workforce." Another Florida law requiring welfare recipients to undergo drug-testing also is being challenged in the courts, notes NPR.