The 6-3 ruling was made in the case brought against Medical University of South Carolina, a public hospital in Charleston. Several women who tested positive for cocaine were arrested in their hospital beds under the state's child-endangerment law.

The Supreme Court ruled that the drug testing was unlawful because it violated the Constitution's Fourth Amendment protectionagainst unreasonable searches. In order for drug testing to be conducted, the justices said, a search warrant or consent is required.

"While the ultimate goal of the program may well have been to get the women in question into substance-abuse treatment and off of drugs, the immediate objective of the searches was to generate evidence for law-enforcement purposes in order to reach that goal," Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the court.

In a previous case, the Supreme Court ruled that drug testing could be conducted without a warrant or individual suspicion if the government could demonstrate a "special need." The justices' ruling in the South Carolina case means that drug testing of pregnant women without their consent to protect fetuses cannot be considered a special need.

COMMENTS ON THIS ARTICLE:

Posted by Jane Armstrong on 01 Jul 08 12:27 PM EDT

The crtical piece here is the criminalization of the user before the real issue of providing effective intervention and treatment. Giving birth to a child is one of the most powerful, life changing events anyone, male or female can experience. What a missed opportunity to bypass this truth in an effort to negatively effect change in a very emotionally vulnerable segment of the child bearing population. I have four children and have worked over 30 years with mothers and newborns in the hospital setting. A new life is a new beginning for more than just the child and that potential should be capitalized upon, not shattered by punitive attempts to "advocate for the child". It will never be a workable treatment option to criminalize ANY kind of addictive behavior. Read James Califano, High Society.

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