Supreme Backing For Big Brotherism Rights Threatened Fourth Amendment Should Be Respected.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s assault on the Fourth Amendment continued this week when it decreed that public school teachers could be forced to submit to drug tests.

We’re headed down the slippery slope in a four-man bobsled, with Chief Justice William Rehnquist at the wheel. This decision shoves us nearer the day when we forfeit our right against unlawful search and seizure altogether. Anti-drug hysteria by an alcohol-guzzling majority is stampeding us toward a Brave New World where our persons, possessions and homes will be open to search without a reasonable suspicion of our wrongdoing.

We’re halfway down the slope already.

The Supreme Court pushed us over the edge a decade ago by ruling that the Fourth Amendment must bow to public safety. In other words, it was in the public’s interest that train engineers and gun-carrying federal agents submit to drug testing. Later, the ruling was expanded to include pilots, firefighters and police. Most of us were comfortable with the decisions because no one wanted to fly in a jet piloted by someone strung out on methamphetamine. Or worse.

In recent years, the court has applied the “safety” rationale to school athletes but not to politicians. Apparently, it’s more important to be drug free when kicking an extra point for Prep U than when voting to send troops to war. After exempting Joe Officeholder, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote, “Where the risk to public safety is real and substantial, mandatory testing may be reasonable. But where … public safety is not genuinely jeopardized, the Fourth Amendment precludes suspicionless search, no matter how conveniently arranged.”

So, why wasn’t that standard applied to teachers?

Certainly, this ruling will fuel efforts in some parts of the country, including Coeur d’Alene, to force mandatory drug testing on all workers, public and private.

A urine test can reveal much more than simple drug use. An unscrupulous employer could order broad results to weed out workers and applicants who are pregnant. Or have a kidney ailment. Or are predisposed to diabetes.

First, train engineers and federal agents were forced to shed their Fourth Amendment rights. Then, pilots, firemen, police officers and school athletes. Now, teachers, who generally aren’t involved in public safety. Who’s next?