By Regan McCarthy
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Tallahassee, FL – A U.S. District Court judge ruled a new Florida law that requires welfare applicants to pass a drug test before receiving benefits unconstitutional. Regan McCarthy reports that judge has ordered that the state stop the mandatory tests.
Florida Governor Rick Scott was a major supporter for a new state law that requires new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF welfare applicants to pass a drug test before getting any money. Scott says it's done all the time in private businesses and he says it's all about making sure tax-payer's money is being used for good not to prop up someone's drug habit. But Baylor Johnson with the American Civil Liberties Union says from his perspective all the law does is strip people of their fourth amendment protections against unreasonable searches.
"What the court did was they dismissed a lot of the arguments made by the state to advance their notion that some families in the state aren't protected by the constitution. The court essentially upheld the idea that despite what some lawmakers think all of us are protected by the 4th amendment."
U.S. District Court Judge Mary Scriven's ruling means the drug testing will be stopped for now. She'll hold a full hearing on the issue later, but experts say typically an injunction is given in cases where judges expect to find an issue with constitutionality. Baylor says even Governor Rick Scott's argument that the measure could save the state money isn't turning out like Scott thought.
"What the governor did was he went on TV and he said that doing this would save the state a lot of money because he believed that more people who were applying for this program were going to test positive for drugs than the general population. Well we have the numbers now and it simply is not true."
Under the law the state reimburses applicants who pass their tests. According to Department of Children and Families spokesman Joe Follick the cost of an average test is 30-dollars. But so far only about two-percent of applicants have tested drug positive. By Johnson's count that means the state is paying out more in drug test reimbursements than it's saving by withholding welfare payments. In an earlier interview Follick predicted many drug users simply wouldn't apply for benefits, knowing they couldn't pass the test. And he said the real reason for the law didn't have anything to do with budgeting. He says the department's main goal is ensuring recipients use the money for its intended purpose supporting their family. He also says that DCF does its best to work with families in the even someone does test positive.
"We try to find a surrogate to receive the cash benefits for the children. So these are rough numbers, but if there was a family of three and they were receiving let's say a single parent and two kids and they were receiving 180-dollars a month. If the head of the household tested positive they can find someone else usually a family member, who would be subject to testing also, but could receive the remaining 120 or so for the children."
The ACLU pursued it's lawsuit on behalf of Luis Lebron. Johnson says Lebron is a young navy vet who is attending college and taking care of a 4-year-old son and disabled mother.
"He needed a little bit of extra help keeping food on the table and a roof over his family's head. And he applied for temporary assistance to help him make ends meet and when confronted with having to subject himself to an unconstitutional search, he didn't consent. He didn't think it was right for him to have to sacrifice his privacy and his dignity to feed his family.
Republican State Representative Jimmie Smith of Lecanto sponsored the House's drug test bill. Smith collected welfare for a short time himself. He says as a past member of the military he's used to drug tests and wouldn't have minded taking one to secure assistance. Governor Scott is still mulling over his option to appeal the judge's injunction. Jackie Schutz is a spokeswoman from the governor's office. She says the governor clearly disagrees with the lower court ruling.
"Drug testing welfare recipients is just a common sense way to ensure that welfare dollars are used to help children and get parents back to work."
The state has 30 days after the ruling to make a decision about whether to appeal.