I was trying to figure out what a lawyer from the Coast Guard would be doing and who he was working with.
A White House official speaking before College of William and Mary law students Saturday advocated random drug testing as the most effective means of preventing drug abuse.
"If you know at some point in the future your livelihood is going to depend on being drug free, you'll probably avoid substance abuse," said Robert W. Kelly, general counsel for the Executive Office of the President and creator of the office's drug-free workplace plan. "Random testing is a very personal thing. It's an emotional thing, but it's an extremely effective deterrent."
Kelly was the keynote speaker at a two-day symposium about the constitutional implications of the war on drugs, sponsored by the student division of the W&M Marshall-Wythe School of Law's Institute of Bill of Rights Law. "The war on drugs is such a big topic right now, we thought it was appropriate to start off the series," said Heidi Wilson, a second year student and symposium coordinator.
Kelly called drug abuse "a recreational vice grown to a crippling social catastrophe." Schools and federal workplaces should be totally drug free, he said.
The tests balance employees' right to privacy under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution with the employer's right to investigate employee misconduct. In drug testing cases, employees also cite their Fourth Amendment right against search and seizure and their Fifth Amendment right to due process of law.
The courts have upheld the government's right to randomly test certain employees for drug use, including those with access to sensitive information and those in positions which relate to the safety of others, Kelly said.
He described the four drug tests available ...
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The U.S. Armed Forces have been conducting drug testing for the past 10 years, and the 1988 Drug Free Workplace Act requires that all federal agencies and companies doing business with them maintain a drug-free workplace.
By 1986, 40 percent of all Fortune 500 companies were using some form of drug testing, Kelly said.
Kelly, who underwent random testing when he was in the Coast Guard and was tested when he applied for his White House job, said the tests bothered him at first.
"After a while you get used to it," he said.
That, if explored further, might explain North’s endorsement.