DRUG-TEST LEGISLATORS

Editor -- If I read right in a recent Chronicle news article, the U.S.
Supreme Court has decided that evidence of recent drug use by teachers
isn't necessary to justify mandatory drug-testing of teachers, who must, as
the court reasoned, stay alert to ensure the safety of students.

As a retired Appeals Court judge, I would like to take this occasion to
propose that judges, including Supreme Court justices, be regularly
drug-tested, at least in cases involving drug-testing issues, in order to
ensure their alertness in evaluating the alertness of those responsible for
the safety of students.

I hope I am not stretching an important point in proposing that legislators
who pass laws requiring drug-testing, whether of teachers or judges, ought
themselves to be drug-tested before voting on such laws.

WILLIAM A. NEWSOM
Associate Justice California Court of Appeal (ret.) Dutch Flat