Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls

Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls, case in which the U.S. Supreme Court on June 27, 2002, ruled (5–4) that suspicionless drug testing of students participating in competitive extracurricular activities did not violate the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees protection from unreasonable searches and seizures. In 1998 a school district in Oklahoma adopted a policy that required all middle- and high-school students who wished to participate in competitive extracurricular activities to submit urine for drug testing. The samples were collected by teachers, who stood outside bathroom stalls. If test results were positive, they were kept confidential, except that parents were notified, and students were referred to counseling. Students were not reported to the police, and only repeated positive tests or refusals to participate in counseling could have led to students being excluded from extracurricular activities. Two students at Tecumseh High School, Lindsay Earls and Daniel James, and their parents filed suit against the school board, challenging the policy as a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Citing Vernonia School District 47J v. Acton—in which the Supreme Court ruled that suspicionless drug testing of student athletes was constitutional—the federal district court upheld the policy, granting the board’s motion for summary judgment. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, however, reversed in favour of Earls and James, deciding that the policy did violate the Fourth Amendment. It found that schools “must demonstrate that there is some identifiable drug abuse problem among a sufficient number of those subject to the testing, such that testing that group of students will actually redress its drug problem.” The Tenth Circuit held that the school district had failed to meet this requirement. The case was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on March 19, 2002. As it had in Vernonia, the court reasoned that students who participate in extracurricular activities have limited expectations of privacy. It also found that the testing procedure was constitutionally permissible, and it was satisfied that the policy clearly required confidentiality. Further, insofar as the court explained that the results were not given to the police and the only real consequence was exclusion from extracurricular activities, it concluded that the invasion of students’ privacy was not significant. The court next asserted that the evidence of drug use offered by school officials was sufficient to justify the policy, because the court had “not required a particularized or pervasive drug problem” to allow drug testing. To that end, the court agreed that the policy served the board’s interest in protecting the safety and health of its students. Finally, the court ruled that the policy was a reasonable means of advancing the district’s interest of preventing drug use by its students. On the basis of its findings, the Supreme Court held that the policy did not violate the Fourth Amendment, and it reversed the Tenth Circuit Court’s decision.