COURT REJECTS DRUG TESTS FOR ELECTED STATE OFFICERS

The Supreme Court yesterday refused to let Louisiana require its elected
officials to undergo random drug testing.

The court, acting without comment, rejected an appeal by Louisiana
officials who contended that such random tests do not violate the
Constitution's ban on unreasonable searches because the state has "special
needs" to deter drug use.

In 1997, the justices ruled in a Georgia case that states cannot force
political candidates to take drug tests merely to demonstrate the
government's commitment to the war on drugs.

The court issued its final decisions for this term Wednesday. Yesterday it
released a lengthy list of cases it has refused or agreed to hear during
the next term, which begins in October.

In other cases, the court:

Refused to hear an appeal from male athletes who challenged a state
university's elimination of men's wrestling and soccer teams, part of an
attempt by the school to equalize opportunities for both sexes.

The justices, without comment, left intact rulings that threw out the
lawsuit against Illinois State University and its officials.

Lawyers for the male athletes argued that eliminating the men's teams in
1995 made them victims of illegal and unconstitutional sexual bias.

Lower courts disagreed, saying Illinois State University's elimination of
the two men's teams, along with the addition of a women's soccer team, was
a legal way to comply with the equality in athletics that federal law and
regulations require.

Ordered lower courts to restudy two states' bans on what critics call
"partial-birth" abortions, in light of its ruling Wednesday that struck
down a similar law in Nebraska.

The justices ordered federal appeals courts to take a new look at laws from
Illinois and Wisconsin under the standards set by Wednesday's 5 to 4
ruling, which said the Nebraska law created an "undue burden" on women's
right to end their pregnancies.

In a separate order, the court let stand a ruling that struck down Iowa's
partial-birth abortion law.

Agreed to resolve a border dispute between New Hampshire and Maine over
which state gets to claim the area of Portsmouth Harbor containing the
Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

The justices allowed New Hampshire to "sue" Maine in the nation's highest
court without first having the dispute heard in any other court.

Agreed to consider whether to kill a lawsuit in which more than 5,000
people accuse a company of fraudulently winning federal approval to market
bone screws for use in spinal surgery. The court said it will decide
whether federal regulation of medical devices precludes such lawsuits in
state courts.

The lawsuit alleges that the Buckman Co., a consultant for medical device
manufacturers, used misrepresentations to obtain the Food and Drug
Administration's go-ahead in 1986 for marketing a bone screw device.

The consultant, applying to the FDA on behalf of AcroMed Corp., indicated
that the screw would be used in arm and leg bones. Thousands of people who
contend they were injured after the bone screws were implanted in their
spines sued Buckman, alleging that it had perpetrated a fraud against the FDA.