A federal court upheld an injunction against Florida’s welfare drug testing law this week. The ruling delivered a blow to one of Governor Rick Scott’s campaign promises and might have a ripple effect.
US District Court Judge Mary Scriven sided with Luis Lebron and the ACLU of Florida who argued the state’s law was unconstitutional.
Lebron sued the state in 2011 after refusing to submit to a drug test prior to receiving temporary welfare. Lebron claimed the test violated his fourth amendment rights.
Scriven ruled “there is no set of circumstances under which the warrantless, suspicionless drug testing at issue in this case could be constitutionally applied.”
ACLU spokesman Baylor Johnson said the ruling is a victory.
“What the decision says is that regardless of wealth or status the fourth amendment protects us all,” Johnson said. “And the decision just rejects the notion that the government can treat an entire class of people like suspected criminals just for being poor.”
Johnson said the ruling also sent a clear message to other states looking to enact similar laws.
“There were a number of other states who were looking at what was going to come out of this case as a sort of a trial balloon for a whole slew of bills that try to score political points by feeding off of ugly stereotypes and prejudices about poor people—which is what Gov. Scott was doing when he was championing this bill,” he said.
Georgia, among others, has been trying to impose drug testing requirements on its welfare recipients.
The 2011 law was first halted by an injunction just a few months after Scott signed it.
Scott had campaigned on the issue of welfare drug testing and has vowed to appeal the court’s latest decision.
