In The
Supreme Court of the United States

Board of Ed. of Independent School Dist. No. 92 of Pottawatomie Cty.v.Earls

Decided June 27, 2002
Justice O’Connor, Dissent

Summary

Board of Education v. Earls, 536 U.S. 822 (2002), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court upheld the constitutionality of mandatory drug testing by public schools of students participating in extracurricular activities. The legal challenge to the practice was brought by two students, Lindsay Earls and Daniel James, and their families against the school board of Tecumseh, Oklahoma, alleging that their policy requiring students to consent to random urinalysis testing for drug use violated the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

CASE DETAILS

Topic: Privacy
Court vote: 5-4
Joining O'Connor opinion:
Holding:Coercive drug testing imposed by school district upon students who participate in extracurricular activities does not violate the Fourth Amendment.
Citation: 536 U.S. 822
Docket: 01-332
Audio: Listen to this case's oral arguments at Oyez

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Opinion

JUSTICE O'CONNOR, with whom JUSTICE SOUTER joins, dissenting.

I dissented in Vernonia School Dist. J,7J v. Acton, 515 U. S. 646 (1995), and continue to believe that case was wrongly decided. Because Vernonia is now this Court's precedent, and because I agree that petitioners' program fails even under the balancing approach adopted in that case, I join JUSTICE GINSBURG'S dissent.