Supreme Court Approves Some Drug Tests

WASHINGTON--Establishing guidelines to test for drug and alcohol abuse in the American workplace, the Supreme Court yesterday approved mandatory tests for some workers in sensitive government jobs or entrusted with public safety.

The justices, voting 7-2, upheld federal regulations forcing railroad workers involved in accidents to undergo blood and urine tests. By a separate 5-4 vote, the court ruled that the U.S. Customs Service can order urine tests for employees seeking drug-enforcement jobs or positions that require they carry firearms.

The court ordered further lower court hearings to determine whether the Customs Service rules also should apply to workers with access to classified information.

While the two cases do not deal with random drug testing, the court gave government officials and regulators broad powers to require tests for workers in sensitive jobs.

Bush administration officials hailed the rulings. Union officials who had challenged the mandatory tests said they were disappointed but some expressed hope the impact would be limited.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, writing for the court in both cases, said such tests do not violate workers' privacy rights even though they may be conducted without a court warrant or a suspicion that an individual is using drugs or alcohol.

While the rulings do not directly affect most private employment, they likely will encourage private employers who impose or plan to impose such tests.

If anything, there is less protection for workers in private jobs because the Constitution's privacy guarantees generally restrict only actions by government officials.

Yesterday's rulings directly affect other drug and alcohol testing programs conducted by federal, state and local governments. For example, they could be used to support testing of police and firefighters.

In the railway workers case, Kennedy said, "The government interest in testing without a showing of individual suspicion is compelling. Employees subject to the tests discharge duties fraught with such risks of injury to others that even a momentary lapse of attention can have disastrous consequences."

In the companion case, Kennedy said waging a war on drugs demands that Customs workers in key jobs be fit and immune to bribes or blackmail.

"The Customs Service is our nation's first line of defense against one of the greatest problems affecting the health and welfare of our population," he said. "The government has a compelling interest in ensuring that front-line interdiction personnel are physically fit and have unimpeachable integrity and judgement."

Justice Thurgood Marshall, in a dissenting opinion in the railway workers case, said the court was bowing to momentary public pressure.

"The majority's acceptance of dragnet blood and urine testing ensures that the first, and worst, casualty of the war on drugs will be the precious liberties of our citizens," he said.