SUSPECT WIELDING TUBA

Thousands of high school students got a lesson last week from the Supreme
Court: For them, the Fourth Amendment doesn't exist.

The high court ruled that school districts can force students who
participate in any extracurricular activity to take random drug tests, even
if there is no evidence that marijuana or alcohol use is rampant among the
Future Farmers of America, the band or the yearbook staff. The Fourth
Amendment bans "unreasonable" search or seizure. Authorities must have
"probable cause." Yet five justices decided that such drug tests, which are
unreasonable and lack probable cause, are constitutional.

No one could argue against a testing program if a school district had
strong suspicion of drug use. In fact, the Supreme Court seven years ago
upheld the constitutionality of such a test. The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, however, had struck down the Tecumseh, Okla., program on the
grounds that "any district seeking to impose a random suspicionless drug
testing policy as a condition to participation in a school activity must
demonstrate that there is some identifiable drug abuse problem among a
sufficient number of those subject to the testing... " Justice Clarence
Thomas, writing for the majority, dismissed that reasoning because "it
would be difficult to administer such a test." No, it would be easy. The
hard part would be proving that there's a reason for the test.

The irony is that the plaintiff, Lindsay Earls, tested negative. She simply
believed that the test violated the privacy that even a minor can expect.
Despite general concern over drug use, the justification for the program --
Future Homemakers use knives; Future Farmers handle large animals -- was a
stretch. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg summed it up in her dissent:
"Notwithstanding nightmarish images of out-of- control flatware, livestock
run amok and colliding tubas disturbing the peace and quiet of Tecumseh,"
most students in after-school activities are "not safety sensitive to an
unusual degree."

Right. And just because school districts can test doesn't mean that,
without cause, they should.