COURT: DRUG-TESTS OF MOTHERS MUST HAVE CONSENT

Hospitals cannot test pregnant women for drugs without their consent and
turn the results over to police, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a
decision that bolstered the Constitution's protection against unreasonable
searches.

The 6-3 decision said such drug-testing by a South Carolina public hospital
violated the Constitution even though the goal was to prevent women from
harming their fetuses by using crack cocaine.

Such tests require a search warrant or consent, the justices said. "While
the ultimate goal of the program may well have been to get the women in
question into substance abuse treatment and off of drugs, the immediate
objective of the searches was to generate evidence for law enforcement
purposes in order to reach that goal," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for
the court.