Opinion ID: 12443
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Pre-Skinner Urinalysis Cases

Text: 92 Prior to Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives' Ass'n., 489 U.S. 602, 109 S.Ct. 1402, 103 L.Ed.2d 639 (1989), and National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab, 489 U.S. 656, 109 S.Ct. 1384, 103 L.Ed.2d 685 (1989), the consensus of courts, which ruled upon the validity of urine tests for public employees required as a prerequisite some articulable basis for suspecting that the employee was using illegal drugs, usually framed as reasonable suspicion. See 4 LaFave, SEARCH AND SEIZURE--A TREATISE ON THE FOURTH AMENDMENT, § 103(e), p. 498 (3d ed.1996)(citing cases at n. 180); Miller, Mandatory Urinalysis Testing and the Privacy Rights of Subject Employees: Toward a General Rule of Legality Under the Fourth Amendment, 44 U.PITT.L.REV. 201, 218-230 (1986)(discussing cases). [V]irtually all the reported cases ... concluded that such testing is unconstitutional in the absence of some reasonable individualized suspicion. Fraternal Order of Police v. City of Newark, 216 N.J.Super. 461, 524 A.2d 430, 436 (1987)(The reasonable individualized suspicion test fairly accommodates the legitimate interest of employee privacy without unduly restricting the public employer's opportunity to monitor and control the use of drugs by employees.) 93 There were exceptions to this general rule for positions involving some unusually pressing public safety or security concerns, such as correctional officers in direct contact with dangerous prisoners, utility employees with access to vital areas of nuclear power plants, or narcotics officers with dangerous undercover assignments. But suspicionless testing was generally rejected for public employees with less unusual responsibilities, including ordinary police officers. Schulhofer, On the Fourth Amendment Rights of the Law-Abiding Public, 1989 SUP.CT. REV. 87, 129-130 (1990)(citing cases). 94