A suit filed today by NORML Legal Committee member William Rittenberg argues that a new law requiring elected officials to undergo random drug testing is unconstitutional. State Rep. Arthur Morrell, a fourteen-year Democrat from Orleans Parish, is the plaintiff in the suit.
“I don’t like to be overly optimistic, but it looks like an easy lawsuit [to win,]” said Rittenberg, who seeks to enjoin the state statute. Rittenberg’s complaint says the drug testing law violates protections against unreasonable searches and seizures guaranteed by the U.S. and state constitutions. The suit also maintains that the statute is in violation of his plaintiff’s rights to due process and his rights against self incrimination.
Rittenberg’s challenge follows a class action suit filed last week by the Louisiana American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of state judge Philip O’Neill. “All we are doing is … slowly … chipping away at our constitutional rights,” O’Neill said. “If allowed to continue, we will still have the drug problem but no constitutional freedoms.”
Rittenberg said that the state will automatically consolidate both cases.
Backers of the court challenge are confident that a 1997 Supreme Court ruling striking down a similar Georgia drug testing law will apply to the Louisiana statute. In that case, the high court found that drug testing political candidates without individualized suspicion and absent “special needs” was unconstitutional. Rittenberg argues that officials enacted the Louisiana statute “merely for symbolic reasons” and not in response to any special governmental need justifying an “arbitrary governmental intrusion.”
NORML Executive Director R. Keith Stroup, Esq. agrees. “The desire to set a good example is insufficient to justify an exemption to the Fourth Amendment,” he said.
Rittenberg added that a separate state statute mandating drug testing for virtually all residents receiving moneys from the state — including welfare recipients, state employees, state university students, and those holding state contracts — is also vulnerable to a constitutional challenge.
For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup of NORML @ (202) 483-5500 or William Rittenberg of The NORML Legal Committee @ (504) 524-5555.