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Forwarded from the Internet Conspiracy Community:
From: Bill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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[EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; Constitutional Cannabis
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Subject: [smashthestate] Michigan wants to drug test all welfare recipients
Date: Friday, October 08, 1999 11:29 PM
From: Bill <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Michigan ACLU Seeks Halt to Nation's First
Mandatory Welfare Drug Testing Program
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, September 30, 1999
DETROIT -- Saying that Michigan's poorest families should
not be treated
like criminals, the American Civil Liberties Union of
Michigan today
filed
a federal class-action lawsuit to halt the nation's first
statewide drug
testing requirement for welfare recipients.
"Mandatory drug testing of a broad swath of the adult
population has
never
in our nation's history been proposed or enacted by a state
government,
much less approved by a court," the ACLU said in its
complaint. A
constitutional ban on Michigan's program, due to go into
effect on
October
1, could send a strong warning to other states, the ACLU
said.
The ACLU filed its class-action lawsuit on behalf of all
Michigan welfare
recipients, including named plaintiffs Tanya L. Marchwinski
and Terri J.
Konieczny, both single mothers on welfare, and Westside
Mothers, a 500+
member advocacy organization created for and by families in
need. The
national ACLU's Drug Policy Litigation Project and local
attorneys are
assisting in the lawsuit.
"Forcing parents to choose between providing for their
children and
giving
up their privacy rights is a giant step backward for public
policy in
Michigan," said Kary Moss, Executive Director of the ACLU of
Michigan and
an attorney in the case.
"The Fourth Amendment guarantees that no individual in this
country can
be
subjected to a search by the government unless there is
reasonable
suspicion that they have committed some crime," she added.
"Welfare
recipients may be poor, but that's not a crime -- not yet,
anyway."
Refusal to submit to random drug testing or failure to
comply with a
mandatory "substance abuse treatment plan" means denial of
income support
and other benefits under the state's "Family Independence
Assistance"
program for families with dependent children. (Adults
without children
are
not eligible for welfare in Michigan.)
The mandatory urine testing program, authorized under (but
not required
by)
Congress' punitive "welfare reform" law of 1996, ignores the
less
restrictive approaches of other states, including testing
only when there
is suspicion of drug use and voluntary programs for
substance abuse and
mental health problems.
"This program only hurts families," said Selma Goode, the
founder of
Westside Mothers. "Whether or not substance abuse drug
treatment is
mandatory, the fact is that Michigan has no adequate drug
therapy
programs
for needy parents with children -- and that is exactly who
this law is
going to affect."
"The state is willing to spend money on drug testing, but
not on drug
treatment," she added. "I think they've got their priorities
mixed up."
Despite Congress' open invitation to conduct the intrusive
searches,
Michigan is the only state now actively seeking to implement
urine
testing.
In Oregon, officials quickly ended a drug testing program
after finding
that anger over the tests impeded treatment and because the
testing did
nothing to address the far more significant problem of
alcoholism.
Florida and Louisiana have considered such programs too, but
Florida
shelved its plans after threat of an ACLU lawsuit, and the
Louisiana
legislature has not yet appropriated the funds needed to
implement a
program.
Michigan officials have claimed that the tests are necessary
in order to
prepare people on welfare for the realities of the working
world. But
according to a July 1999 University of Michigan study,
Michigan's welfare
population has "unusually high levels of some barriers to
work, such as
physical and mental health problems, domestic violence, and
lack of
transportation, but relatively low levels of other barriers,
such as drug
or alcohol dependence."
"The emotionally charged myth of the �drug-addicted welfare
mother' is
not
supported by empirical data," said Graham Boyd, director of
the national
ACLU's Drug Policy Litigation Project. "In fact, a recent
federal study
shows that the percentage of welfare recipients using,
abusing, or
dependent on alcohol or drugs is relatively small and is in
fact
consistent
with the general population."
The nation's highest court has also looked askance at
suspicionless
testing. In two recent constitutional challenges to
government drug
testing
of public employees, the Supreme Court ruled that only under
very narrow
circumstances may government employers impose a drug test
without
suspicion
of drug use, Boyd noted.
The ACLU seeks an immediate halt to Michigan's program and
asks the court
to declare it unconstitutional under the Fourth Amendment's
protection
against unreasonable searches and seizures.
The case is Marchwinski et al., v. Family Independence
Agency, et al.
Attorneys in the case are Kary Moss and Graham Boyd of the
ACLU; Prof.
Robert A. Sedler of Wayne State University Law School in
Detroit and
David
R. Getto and Cameron R. Getto of Southfield, as cooperating
attorneys.
The ACLU of Michigan's brief is available online at:
www.aclumich.org\briefs\welf930.htm
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