JUDGE BLOCKS DRUG TESTS FOR WELFARE
'Unreasonable Search' Of Applicants, She Says

(Detroit-AP) -- Michigan's experimental program requiring welfare
applicants to be tested for drugs was blocked yesterday by a federal
judge who said the practice appears to be unconstitutional.

Under the program that began Oct. 1, most welfare applicants in three
western counties and a portion of the Detroit suburbs must provide
urine samples before they can be considered for benefits.

No one who tests positive will be denied food stamps or assistance
checks, and police won't be notified. But offenders who don't go to
state-ordered treatment risk the gradual loss of benefits.

The program is to be eventually expanded statewide.

However, U.S. District Judge Victoria Roberts issued a temporary
restraining order, saying that requiring the tests without suspicion
"is likely unconstitutional."

The judge said that applying for welfare is not voluntary because it
provides for basic needs such as food and shelter. "To state that
applicants can choose to forgo benefits is disingenuous," she wrote.

A group of welfare recipients and the American Civil Liberties Union
of Michigan had argued that the requirement was an "unreasonable
search" in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The practice does not apply to Medicaid, disability, emergency or
other state assistance programs.

So far, 8 percent of welfare applicants in the pilot communities have
tested positive for drugs, primarily marijuana, according to the
agency that administers welfare in Michigan.