Court Opinion

ID: 9486371
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 11:46:30.016944+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:51:41.571147
License: Public Domain

SCHROEDER, Circuit Judge,
concurring separately:
I concur in the result. In my view, a district court’s sentencing decision should not be based in any way upon results of drug testing, unless the court has probable cause to believe the defendant is using illegal drugs. Here, the law enforcement authorities lacked even an individualized suspicion that the subject had ever engaged in illegal drug activities. Contrast State v. Guzman, 480 N.W.2d 446 (Wis.1992) (approving pre-sentencing urinalysis of a defendant convicted of illegal drug dealing over a strong dissent).
I cannot agree with the majority’s view that sentencing is an integral part of the probation system and that sentencing concerns may fall within the “special needs” exception to the probable cause requirement of the Fourth Amendment whenever a probation is a sentencing possibility. Contrast United States v. Duff, 831 F.2d 176 (9th Cir.1987) (upholding drug testing of a probationer convicted of a drug offense upon reasonable suspicion that he had been violating the terms of his probation). I also must disagree with the majority’s conclusion that the “special need” requirement may be satisfied by the government somehow correlating the defendant’s crime of conviction, itself unrelated to drugs, with drug usage. These are not issues that need to be decided in this case. The majority reaches out to extend a most unfortunate invitation to the government to try to justify invasive drug testing procedures on a particular defendant by using statistics of behavior engaged in by others. This suggestion is unprecedented and incapable of fair and reasonable application as required by due process and the Fourth Amendment.