A Florida federal judge Thursday declared Gov. Rick Scott’s order requiring drug testing for some 85,000 state workers unconstitutional, saying the governor showed no evidence of a drug problem to warrant suspicionless testing. Similar legislation requesting the testing welfare recipients has also been halted.
The ruling marks the second blow to Scott’s proposals regarding drug testing. The governor also suspended a state law he supported that required drug testing for welfare recipients last year after a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. A federal judge in Orlando has temporarily blocked that law.
The ACLU and a government worker’s union also filed a lawsuit last year challenging Scott’s order to drug test state employees, saying the testing violates the Fourth Amendment by subjecting state workers to an unreasonable search without adequate suspicion that they used drugs. Scott, who suspended drug testing for state employees in June, said he will appeal Thursday’s ruling.
“As I have repeatedly explained, I believe that drug testing state employees is a common sense means of ensuring a safe, efficient and productive workforce,” Scott said in a statement. “That is why so many private employers drug test, and why the public and Florida’s taxpayers overwhelmingly support this policy.”