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''Board of Education v. Earls'', 536 U.S. 822 (2002), was a case by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 5–4, that it does not violate the Fourth Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the nation ...
for public schools to conduct mandatory drug testing on students participating in
extracurricular activities An extracurricular activity (ECA) or extra academic activity (EAA) or cultural activities is an activity, performed by students, that falls outside the realm of the normal curriculum of school, college or university education. Such activities a ...
. The case centered around a policy adopted by the school district of
Tecumseh, Oklahoma Tecumseh ( sac, Takamithîheki) is a city in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 6,457 at the 2010 census, a 5.9 percent increase from the figure of 6,098 in 2000. It was named for the noted Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, ...
requiring all students involved in extracurricular activities, including the school's sports teams, to consent to
urinalysis Urinalysis, a portmanteau of the words ''urine'' and ''analysis'', is a panel of medical tests that includes physical (macroscopic) examination of the urine, chemical evaluation using urine test strips, and microscopic examination. Macroscopic ...
testing for drugs. Two students, Lindsay Earls and Daniel James, brought a lawsuit against the school board, alleging that the policy violated the Fourth Amendment's prohibition of unreasonable
search and seizure Search and seizure is a procedure used in many civil law and common law legal systems by which police or other authorities and their agents, who, suspecting that a crime has been committed, commence a search of a person's property and confisca ...
.


Background

The Student Activities Drug Testing Policy adopted by the Tecumseh, Oklahoma School District requires all middle and high school students to consent to urinalysis testing for drugs in order to participate in any extracurricular activity. Two Tecumseh High School students and their parents brought suit, alleging that the policy violates the Fourth Amendment. The District Court granted the School District summary judgment. In reversing, the Court of Appeals held that the policy violated the Fourth Amendment. The appellate court concluded that before imposing a suspicionless drug-testing program, a school should demonstrate some identifiable drug abuse problem among a sufficient number of those tested, such that testing that group will actually redress its drug problem, which the School District failed to demonstrate.


Opinion of the Court

In a majority opinion delivered by Justice
Clarence Thomas Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall and has served since 1 ...
, the Court held that students in extracurricular activities had a diminished expectation of privacy, and that the policy furthered an important interest of the school in preventing drug use among students. This rationale was based on the precedent '' Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton'' (1995), which allowed drug testing for athletes. Justice Stephen Breyer filed an opinion
concurring In law, a concurring opinion is in certain legal systems a written opinion by one or more judges of a court which agrees with the decision made by the majority of the court, but states different (or additional) reasons as the basis for their deci ...
in the Court's judgment.


References


External links

* United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court United States Fourth Amendment case law United States education case law United States controlled substances case law 2002 in United States case law 2002 in education Education in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma Student rights case law in the United States Drug testing {{SCOTUS-case-stub