Yellow Rows of Test Tubes: Due Process Constraints on Discharges of Public Employees Based on Drug Urinalysis Testing

Abstract

As the problem of employee drug abuse gains increasing attention from the popular' and business2 news media, many public and private employers have instituted medical testing programs to detect drug use among employees.3 In the public sector, large-scale drug screening began in the United States military in 1981.' Currently, agencies at all levels of government have testing programs;5 moreover, on September 15, 1986, President Reagan signed Executive Order 12,564 mandating a drug-free federal workplace and requiring the head of each executive agency to establish a drug testing program within the parameters of the executive order.6 This order is estimated to affect more than one million federal employees.7 Clearly, drug testing is an issue many public employees now or will soon face. Drug testing is usually carried out by urinalysis, the easiest and least expensive method.8 However, drug urinalysis testing has generated much opposition, primarily on the ground that it violates the privacy rights of the persons tested.9 This Comment focuses on testing of