Florida Drug Tests For Public Assistance Ruled Unconstitutional
A U.S. District Court judge on this day declared unconstitutional a Florida law that required all recipients of public assistance to submit to (and pay for) drug testing as a precondition of receiving benefits.
The case was Lebron v. Wilkins, and involved the Florida Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) law.
The Court: “In sum, the State has failed to show that the TANF program or its recipients in this case fall within the ‘closely guarded category’ for which or for whom the Supreme Court has sanctioned mandatory, suspicionless drug testing. The State has also failed to show that the statute at issue in this case is otherwise necessary to alleviate the concerns raised by the State.”
Learn more about drug testing for welfare recipients: https://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/drug-testing-welfare-recipients