Pubdate: Thu, 16 Dec 2004
Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL)
Copyright: 2004 St. Petersburg Times
Contact: http://connect.sptimes.com/contactus/letterstoeditor.html
Website: http://www.sptimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/419
Author: Alisa Ulferts, Staff Writer

U.S. RULING RESTRICTS RANDOM DRUG TESTS

Where Safety Is Not An Issue, Public Employees Don't Have To Submit To
Drug Tests Without Cause, A Judge Rules In The Case Of A Fired State
Worker.

TALLAHASSEE - The state Department of Juvenile Justice's random drug
testing policy is unconstitutional, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Only public employees with jobs that affect safety, such as armed law
enforcement officers or bus drivers, can be required to randomly
submit to drug tests, U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle ruled. For
other employees, such as receptionists, such a policy is a violation
of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, Hinkle said.

The ruling does not affect the private sector.

"The courts have upheld random drug testing for employees who carry
guns or fly planes or are involved in other dangerous activities,"
said Rick Johnson, an attorney for the ACLU.

But he said "number crunchers," such as the Department of Juvenile
Justice employee the ACLU represented in this case, do not do work
that is safety-sensitive. "The Constitution does not allow them to be
tested except on reasonable suspicion, not a random test," Johnson
said.

Juvenile justice officials could not be reached late
Wednesday.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District
of Florida on behalf of Roderick H. Wenzel, the department's manager
of strategic planning and performance measurement, who was fired after
refusing to submit to a random drug test.

Wenzel, a 17-year state employee, had served as a senior governmental
analyst under Govs. Lawton Chiles and Jeb Bush before joining Juvenile
Justice.

Lawyers for the department said that even though Wenzel did not have
contact with juveniles as part of his job, he had clearance to visit
detention sites and had access to a computer database of offenders.
The state's attorneys argued that if Wenzel were using drugs, he might
look up drug users among juvenile offenders and try to extort drugs
from them.

"To call this defense theory far-fetched would be charitable," Hinkle
wrote in his ruling. Wenzel is due some kind of reinstatement, Hinkle
ruled.

Wenzel could not be reached for comment.
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