SUPREME COURT TAKES HARD LINE ON DRUGS IN FEDERAL HOUSING

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court reinforced a hard line against drugs
Tuesday, backing rules that permit eviction of families from
federally subsidized housing if any family member or guest is
involved in narcotics. The decision came a week after justices
indicated they were ready to allow wider drug-testing in schools, and
they are also handling narcotics cases this year that could condone
government intrusion for public safety.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, quoting Congress, wrote in the
housing decision that "with drugs leading to murders, muggings, and
other forms of violence against tenants," aggressive eviction
policies are reasonable. He also cited the desire of Congress to end
"the reign of terror" in public housing.

The court said that public housing directors could evict entire
families for drug use by one member, regardless of whether the use
was on public housing property or if anyone else knew about it.

Clarksville Housing Authority executive director Wanda Mills said the
ruling will help her office enforce leases that have a no drug
policy. The housing authority checks for drug use in public housing
through arrest reports and court records, she said.

"It doesn't happen very often but we have evicted people for drugs,"
Mills said.

The losers in the Supreme Court decision were four California senior
citizens who received eviction notices because of the drug use of
relatives or caregivers.

Critics of the law said there is a double standard for the poor who
depend on public housing.

The issue of substance abuse has touched the White House. President
Bush's underage daughters were caught trying to buy alcohol in a
Texas restaurant last year and his niece, the daughter of Florida
Gov. Jeb Bush, was admitted to a treatment center in February after
being arrested on a prescription drug charge.

Two more drug cases will be argued before the court next month, both
at the request of the Bush administration. One could make it easier
to search public transportation passengers who may be drug couriers,
the other may affirm the way sentences are figured in drug cases.

"This war on drugs is being waged most viciously against the poor
people," said Daniel Abrahamson, director of legal affairs for the
group Drug Policy Alliance. "Any time the Supreme Court takes a case
with drugs in it, it is another opportunity to further erode our
civil liberties and constitutional rights."

Jonathan Macey, a professor at Cornell University Law School, said
the court's decisions "give legitimacy to the war on drugs."
Regardless of the impact, it's "symbolic and morale boosting" when
the court affirms the government's drug tools, he said.

Justices have resolved two search and seizure cases this term in
favor of government. In one, the court ruled that an officer had
enough suspicion to make a traffic stop when he saw a family acting
strangely in a minivan near the Mexico border. The officer found 125
pounds of marijuana.

The so-called "one-strike" housing provision at issue in Tuesday's
decision was part of a drug law Congress passed in 1988 amid
complaints about crime in public housing. The legal challenge
centered on policies developed to follow the law.

"It's not fair. It's not right," said 79-year-old Herman Walker, one
of the four senior citizens who could be evicted now.

The ruling is a relief for housing leaders, who argued that without
eviction power, drug problems would worsen in public housing.

"It is not absurd that a local housing authority may sometimes evict
a tenant who had no knowledge of drug-related activity," Rehnquist
wrote for the 8-0 court.

The residents in this case were from Oakland, Calif., but public
housing groups nationwide have followed the case.

Paris R. Baldacci, a professor at Cardozo School of Law, said the
Supreme Court seemed swayed by crime concerns, not fear of hurting
innocent tenants.

"It's that tone, that the court is so caught up in the sort of drug
panic that it doesn't step back ... instead of getting the target who
might be causing the reign of terror, this is sweeping up all people
who may have a drug problem," Baldacci said.

Leaf-Chronicle staff writer Chantal Escoto contributed to this report.