The Ninth Circuit found that a municipality violated the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution by requiring all applicants to take a drug and alcohol test before being hired. In this case, the applicant was applying for a library page position, and the Court found that this position was not safety sensitive. As such, the search must "fit within the closely guarded category of constitutionally permissible suspicionless searches." Lanier v. City of Woodburn, No. 06-35262 (9th Cir. Mar. 13, 2008). Finding that the City had made no valid showing of "special need" for the suspicionless testing, or that there existed individualized suspicion for the testing, the court held that the government's policy is an unreasonable Fourth Amendment search when applied to a library page candidate.

In holding the requirement unconstitutional, the court noted that the United States Supreme Court has held that the Fourth Amendment requires a governmental entity to articulate a special need to drug screen individuals without suspicion. The Court rejected the municipality's arguments that its policy withstood a constitutional challenge because (1) "drug abuse is one of the most serious problems confronting society," (2) "drug use has an adverse impact on job performance," and (3) "children must be protected from those who use drugs or could influence children to use them." The municipality also argued that all library positions are "safety-sensitive," and the Court rejected this theory as well stating that jobs are safety-sensitive "if they involve work that may pose a great danger to the public," such as the operation of railway cars, the armed interdiction of illegal drugs, and work involving matters of national security. In the court's view, a part-time library page position is not comparable to such positions.

Although this decision is from the Ninth Circuit, all governmental entities should closely monitor their drug testing policies to ensure that they can withstand a constitutional challenge. The case serves as a reminder that governmental entities can do random drug testing only for safety sensitive positions. If the position is not safety-sensitive, drug testing can be done only upon a finding of reasonable suspicion.