Pubdate: Tue, 05 Oct 1999
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 1999 Mercury Center
Contact:  http://www.sjmercury.com/
Author: David G. Savage

HIGH COURT REFUSES TO HALT DRUG TESTS
Appeals Rejected: Teachers Must Submit To Procedure

(Washington) -- The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for mandatory
drug  testing for schoolteachers, rejecting a constitutional challenge
that called the program ``an exercise in symbolism.''

The justices turned down an appeal filed by the National Education
Association, the largest teachers union, which argued that educators
should not be forced to undergo urine testing unless there is evidence
of a drug problem on the faculty.

The court's action in the school case came on the opening day of its
new term. It also refused to strike down a state tax credit for
contributions to private and parochial schools and heard arguments in
a death penalty case.

The day was highlighted by the return of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg,
who had undergone surgery for colon cancer a little more than two
weeks ago. But at 10 a.m. Monday, she emerged with her fellow justices
and smiled broadly before the assembled lawyers.

More than 1,600 appeals were turned down, most of them from prison
inmates.

In a ruling that put convicted police killer Mumia Abu-Jamal one step
closer to execution, the high court refused to consider his appeal
claiming he was denied a fair trial.

While ending Abu-Jamal's second appeal of his conviction and death
sentence in the 1981 shooting death of Philadelphia officer Daniel
Faulkner, the ruling leaves the former radio reporter and Black
Panther turned cause celebre one last appeal: a federal petition
known as habeas corpus, in which he may argue that his constitutional
rights were violated.

Abu-Jamal's appeal raised three arguments, none of which focused on
his claim of innocence. He contended that he was wrongly stripped of
his right to represent himself during jury selection; that he was
removed from the courtroom after disrupting the trial, which he said
violated his right to confront witnesses against him; and that he was
excluded from a meeting in which the trial judge disqualified a juror.

A decade ago, the high court first upheld forced urine testing in
cases involving train engineers and gun-carrying federal agents. These
workers would pose a safety risk to the public if they were under the
influence of drugs, the court decided. Therefore, mandatory testing
was not an ``unreasonable search'' prohibited by the Fourth Amendment,
the justices held on a 5-4 vote.

More recently, however, lower courts have extended the ``safety''
rationale to include, for example, white-collar budget analysts in
Washington, and now schoolteachers.

School board members in Knox County, Tenn., said that they had no
evidence of drug use among their teachers but wanted to take a ``firm
stand'' against drugs.

In 1994, the board voted to require urine screening for all new
teachers. In addition, school employees who showed signs of impairment
also could be forced to submit to a test. However, a federal judge
blocked the policy from taking effect. Public safety was not at stake,
the judge said.

But last year, a U.S. appeals court overturned that decision and
allowed school officials to implement a testing program. ``The public
interest (in a drug-free school staff) clearly outweighs the privacy
interest of the teacher not to be tested,'' the appeals court said.

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