oyees began to sue, claiming that individual testing is a violation of privacy rights (Horgan, 21). The argument is that the employees are being deprived of their Fourth Amendment protection (22). Many believe that government testing programs should be unconstitutional unless the authorities have either reasonable suspicion or probable cause that the individuals being tested are on drugs. To justify the use of private employer testing, President Bush said in 1989 that “Drug abuse among American workers costs businesses anywhere from $60 billion to $100 billion dollars a year in lost productivity, absenteeism, drug-related accidents, medical claims, and theft” (Horgan, 19). This claim was derived from a source that interviewed families that were 28% lower in overall income than the average household. This was used in an effort to promote Bush’s “war on drugs” forum into the private sector (Horgan, 21). Many behavior’s of lower income people often differ statistically from upper-income people, therefore the statement of Bush never establishes a clear or accurate statistic. “In 1989 President George Bush unveiled his National Drug Control Strategy, encouraging comprehensive drug-free workplace policies in the private sector and in state and local government” (Stencel, 201). This created many controversies within the American workplace and in National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab decision; the Supreme Court upheld that drug testing was legal as long as it outweighs privacy rights (James). Then, in 1991 Congress passed the Omnibus Transportation and Employment Testing Act, which would extend drug testing in the United States. Throughout the rest of the 90’s drug tests were extended to the outermost sectors of society causing drugs to become a significant issue during election times, although politicians are never tested themselves. The Fourth Amendment of the Co...
