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Temporary Ban Upheld On Florida Welfare Drug Tests
February 27, 2013
A federal appeals court Tuesday refused to lift an injunction against a 2011 Florida law that would require drug tests for people seeking public-assistance benefits — spurring Gov. Rick Scott to vow an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta said the state had not shown a “special need” for drug testing applicants to the program known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. It upheld a preliminary injunction issued in 2011 by U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven.
“As the district court found, the state failed to offer any factual support or to present any empirical evidence of a ‘concrete danger’ of illegal drug use within Florida’s TANF population,” the 38-page opinion said. “The evidence in this record does not suggest that the population of TANF recipients engages in illegal drug use or that they misappropriate government funds for drugs at the expense of their own and their children’s basic subsistence. The state has presented no evidence that simply because an applicant for TANF benefits is having financial problems, he is also drug addicted or prone to fraudulent and neglectful behavior.”
Scott quickly issued a statement calling the appeals-court ruling “disturbing” and saying it would be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
“Welfare is 100 percent about helping children,” said Scott, who along with the Republican-controlled Legislature, approved the law. “Welfare is taxpayer money to help people looking for jobs who have children. Drug use by anyone with children looking for a job is totally destructive. This is fundamentally about protecting the well-being of Florida families.”
While the appeal focused on the preliminary injunction, the three-judge panel Tuesday backed Scriven’s view that opponents of the drug-testing ban were likely to prevail in the overall case. Opponents contended that the drug-testing requirement violated the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches.
The named plaintiff in the case, Navy veteran Luis Lebron, applied for benefits in 2011 as a college student and single father. Lebron, an Orlando resident who has been represented by attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Florida Justice Institute, met the program’s requirements but refused to go along with a drug test.
“The court’s decision clearly states that the Fourth Amendment’s protection against being subjected to these kinds of invasive searches protects us all, including those of us who are struggling to make ends meet in this tough economy,” said Maria Kayanan, an ACLU of Florida attorney and lead counsel in the case. “The state of Florida can’t treat an entire segment of our community like suspected criminals simply because they are poor and are trying to get temporary assistance from the government to support their families.”
In a brief filed early last year, the Scott administration said TANF is designed to improve family stability and help beneficiaries get jobs.
“Drugs are antithetical to both goals, and thus drug testing furthers the program’s purposes,” the brief said. “TANF applicants, who must disclose a broad range of private information in order to participate in the program, have a substantially diminished expectation of privacy. Moreover, drug testing is commonly required in today’s society — particularly in the very job market that TANF prepares participants to enter.”
Also, while the law would require applicants to pass drug tests before they could receive benefits, the state contended that people who don’t want to comply with the program’s requirements are “free to walk away.”
But Tuesday’s appeals-court opinion, written by former Florida Supreme Court Justice Rosemary Barkett, said the state failed to show a “special need for its mandatory, suspicion-less drug testing of TANF applicants.”
“The simple fact of seeking public assistance does not deprive a TANF applicant of the same constitutional protection from unreasonable searches that all other citizens enjoy,” wrote Barkett, who was joined in the unanimous opinion by judges Adalberto Jordan and Randal Hall.
The ruling came less than a month before the appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments in a separate attempt by Scott to require drug testing of state employees. A district court also has ruled against Scott on that controversial plan, and the appeal will be heard March 22 in Miami.
By The News Service of Florida
Comments
11 Responses to “Temporary Ban Upheld On Florida Welfare Drug Tests”
Let’s see, it’s required to get a drug test in order to get a job, BUT in order to get welfare people shouldn’t have to be drug tested.
What is wrong with this picture! If a person has nothing to hide they shouldn’t have a problem with a simple drug test.
Mark,
It is illegal to make guns illegal.
It will continue to be illegal until that part of The Bill of Rights is legally changed. (The procudures for legally amending the Constitution are spelled out.)
In the absence of respect for the law by members of Congress, some lower courts and sometimes even by past Presidents, it isn’t really paranoid to fear even worse offenses in the distant future.
David for law-abiding governments and people
Rufus is right on the mark with his post. We need to honor the protections that the constitution has afforded us. If we allow our glorius leaders to ignore one part of it then how long will it be before they ignore the 2nd amendment? I threw the gun issue out because it is one that so many so called conservatives go crazy about. I don’t even own a gun but I will always back the 2nd amendment rights of our citizens. The only people who should have to be drug tested are people who’s jobs involve public safety or those who show actions that represent probable cause to search their bodies for cause.
I hate this idea. Drugs are wrong, but this is going too far.
I have no trouble paying taxes to help those who truly need it. However, just this month I have seen 1) someone at tom thumb buying a $20 and $10 lottery tickets, then use a food stamp card to pay for their “food”. 2) a couple purchasing a 50″ flat screen tv (that my husband and I can’t afford yet because we are saving up for it still) and then use the pretty Florida food stamp card for “food”. 3) a woman buying 2 – 24 bottle cases of beer and yes use her Florida food stamp card for “food”. So, it seems these people are making bad or unaffordable personal decisions that have no consequences. Maybe if there were some consequences for bad choices like doing drugs, they would try to better themselves. I’m all for helping out, but every time I see these things it makes me angrier and feeling less charitable. We should at least draw the line at drug use.
People should not have to submit to a drug test unless there is some reason to suspect they are taking drugs. Trying to get a job, or signing up for welfare or unemployment does not constitute probable cause. This is all spelled out pretty clearly in the Constitution. If more people read it, rather than simply waving it around as a prop while they scream about the government coming to take their guns or about having to take responsibility for their health care costs, this would be abundantly clear. I’m actually more disturbed that so many people think that having to submit to such a thing is perfectly ok than I am that Rick Scott proposed it in the first place. His motivation was lining his own pockets, which is understandable if reprehensible.
Wow, @Bill. Way to turn an article about drug testing into paranoia about the government coming for your guns!
First of all, the government is not going to come after your guns. No democrat or republican in their right mind is going to try that. They may TALK about it, but they will never try it because of the 2nd amendment.
The only thing the government will come after are “illegal” weapons such as automatic weapons and any banned assault rifles. Your handguns and rifles are safe.
Now here’s the real argument.. How can drug testing be “illegal search and seizure” for a welfare recipient, but not for the average Joe worker who has to submit to one for hiring purposes?
Let’s just give those on government assistance even more reasons to sit around doing nothing but getting high/drunk.
How much sense does it make that people have to drug test for most decent pay checks, but the courts won’t allow us require testing for a welfare check?
It violates the constitution to search for illegal activity without probable cause or a search warrant. Will you be so agreeable with this type of government action when they come to your house to take your guns without a warrant?
Regardless of the ruling on drug testing state employees, it continues to be done at random and has been done that way for about 8-10 years, and I don’t have a problem with that. The problem is with being paid by the state to provide a public service to the citizens of Florida with random drug screening ensuring public safety, yet somehow, it is a violation of the fourth amendment to drug test welfare recipients who are receiving my (and your) tax dollars that provide no public service at all.
Almost every job these days require some sort of drug testing, so, if these recipients are truly trying to get a job and are just down on their luck at the present time, then they would have no worries about that part of the hiring process.
As the article states, if you don’t agree with it, then just walk away. If you want help for the right reasons, submit to the urinalysis and stop spending my tax dollars on the things that you want, rather than need.
I think they should have to take a drug test to get on any government assistance !!
You have to take one when you get a job!!So it should be the same for the ones that get help as for the ones that work hard to pay for them to get it!!!