Updated Sept. 13, 2013
This morning, U.S. District Judge Nanette K. Laughrey ruled the mandatory drug testing policy at Linn State Technical College is unconstitutional as applied to most students.
In 2011, Linn State Technical College, in Linn, Mo., began a policy requiring all incoming students to submit to drug testing, even though there were no documented problems with drugs in the college’s 50-year history. The ACLU filed a lawsuit in 2011 charging that the mandatory policy was unconstitutional, and a court-ordered injunction prevented the college from testing while the case was being tried.
“Like most Americans, Missourians are tired of the War on Drugs and policies that assume that everyone is guilty of illegal drug use,” said Jeffrey Mittman, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri's executive director. “The court recognized that illusory safety concerns can be used ‘to mask unconstitutional purposes.’”
“Forcing students to provide urine samples violates their constitutional rights,” says Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU-MO. “To make matters worse, students had to pay the college $50 each for the tests that violated their privacy.”
In Judge Laughrey’s 62-page decision, she ruled that with the exception of students in a mere handful of programs, mandatory drug testing of college students is unconstitutional.
Rothert estimates that at least 450 of the 500 Linn State students who were forced to provide a specimen will receive a refund of their $50. In addition, their samples will be either destroyed or returned.
Updated July 1, 2013
Tony Rothert, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, argued the Linn State drug testing case, Barrett v. Claycomb, before the U.S. District Court of Western District of Missouri, Central Division at the U.S. District Court, 80 Lafayette Street, Court Room 4A, in Jefferson City. Other attorneys included Grant Doty, ACLU-EM staff attorney; and Jason Williamson, staff attorney with the ACLU’s Criminal Law Reform Project.
U.S. District Judge Nanette K. Laughrey indicated that she might release her decision before the beginning of the 2013 fall semester.
November 18, 2011
Contact: Deborah Read, (314) 652-3114; debbie@aclu-mo.org
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – A federal judge granted class certification this week in the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Missouri’s federal lawsuit charging Linn State Technical College with violating the constitutional rights of its students by forcing them to submit to mandatory drug tests as a condition of their enrollment. The ACLU now represents a class of all current and future students seeking degrees or certificates at the college.
A two-year, publicly funded college, Linn State is the first public college in the country to require students, all of whom are at least 18 years old, to submit to mandatory drug testing. The drug testing policy has been instituted despite there being no documented problems with drugs in the College’s 50-year history and no reason to suspect that the students being tested have used illegal drugs. “Linn State’s drug testing is an unconstitutional search,” said Brenda Jones, Executive Director of the ACLU of Eastern Missouri. “As the Court recognized, every student at Linn State has the same Fourth Amendment right not to be unreasonably searched. This week’s decision will allow every student’s interest to be represented.”
A court-ordered injunction prevents the College from going forward with testing while the case is decided. The Court issued a temporary restraining order in September and a preliminary injunction today.
The Court’s orders are available below.