DRUG CASE AGAIN TO BE APPEALED

State Pursues Defense Of Cocaine Screening Of Pregnant Women

CHARLESTON - A decade-old lawsuit over giving police the results of
hospital drug tests on pregnant women is expected to go to the nation's
highest court a second time.

Friday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., refused to
reconsider its ruling that some of the plaintiffs did not know they were
being tested for cocaine or consent to such tests at the Medical University
of South Carolina.

The defendants will appeal that to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Bobby Hood,
an attorney representing the state.

The Supreme Court has already ruled the tests violated protections against
unreasonable search and seizure.

And if the high court refuses to hear or rejects the new appeal, the case
would return to Charleston where a jury would weigh damages, said Susan
Dunn, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

In 1993, 10 women sued MUSC and school officials, the city of Charleston
and local law enforcement officials saying the testing was an
unconstitutional search. The testing policy, since dropped, was designed to
keep mothers from harming their unborn babies with cocaine.

In 1997, a Charleston jury rejected the women's claim and, two years later,
the appeals court agreed, saying the law allows searches without a warrant
when the government shows a special need.

But the U.S. Supreme Court later reversed the appeals court, ruling the
testing violated the Constitution.

The justices returned the case to the lower courts and, in October, the
appeals court ruled that eight plaintiffs did not consent to the tests.