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NC: Drug testing of teachers violates state constitution

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

N.C. school district's random drug and alcohol testing of teachers was unconstitutional. Jones v. Graham County Bd. of Educ., 2009 N.C. App. LEXIS 695 (June 2, 2009). The opinion starts with Brandeis "The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding."fn1 fn1. Nat'l Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab, 489 U.S. 656, 687, 109 S. Ct. 1384, 103 L. Ed. 2d 685, 716 (1989) (Scalia, J., dissenting) (quoting Olmstead v. United States, 277 U.S. 438, 479, 48 S. Ct. 564, 72 L. Ed. 944, 957 (1928) (Brandeis, J., dissenting)). and goes downhill from there that the policy is a general search in violation of the state constitution: We next consider whether Board employees have a reduced expectation of privacy by virtue of their employment in a public school system...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on June 11, 2009 (boomark / email).