Guiney v. Roache

686 F. Supp. 956, 3 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 598, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4883, 47 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 38,220, 1988 WL 53860
CourtDistrict Court, D. Massachusetts
DecidedMay 18, 1988
DocketCiv. A. 86-1346-K
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 686 F. Supp. 956 (Guiney v. Roache) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Massachusetts primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Guiney v. Roache, 686 F. Supp. 956, 3 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 598, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4883, 47 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 38,220, 1988 WL 53860 (D. Mass. 1988).

Opinion

OPINION

KEETON, District Judge.

Plaintiff challenges Boston Police Department Rule 111, as amended, which authorizes urinalysis drug testing of department employees on both a reasonable suspicion and a random basis. Plaintiff seeks (1) a declaratory judgment that the Rule’s random testing provision violates the Fourth Amendment as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment and (2) equitable relief temporarily and permanently enjoining its enforcement. By agreement of the parties, the court bypassed hearings on plaintiff’s prayer for preliminary relief and proceeded directly to non-jury trial of the entire case.

Trial commenced on October 1, 1986, and on that same day the evidence was closed. There followed a motion of plaintiff to reopen the evidence. The court convened a conference on December 15, 1986, at which time a further stipulation was filed and the evidence was closed.

In a reported opinion dated March 6, 1987, the court denied plaintiff’s prayer for preliminary relief and dismissed this action on grounds of abstention without prejudice on the merits. Guiney v. Roache, 654 F.Supp. 1287 (D.Mass.1987). Plaintiff appealed. The First Circuit held that this court erred in the abstention ruling, Guiney v. Roache, 833 F.2d 1079 (1st Cir.1987), *958 and in its mandate dated December 2,1987, vacated and remanded the cause to this court for “further proceedings.”

After consultation with counsel, and with no argument to the contrary having been made, this court determined that the mandate did not require a new trial if all material issues could be resolved in “further proceedings” supplemental to the trial already held. The parties were invited to supplement their previous submissions to reflect any changes in material facts or law since December 15, 1986. The parties chose not to supplement the factual record; however, both plaintiff and defendant submitted further memoranda of law and reply briefs. (Docket Nos. 63, 64, 66, 68). In addition, the Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association submitted a brief as amicus curiae. (Docket No. 69). Oral arguments were then heard on May 13, 1988.

I.

The evidence before the court consists principally of Rule 111 and a stipulation, as twice amended, by which the parties agreed on a statement of the material facts. The entire text of the rule and of this stipulation is reproduced in the March 6, 1987 Opinion of the court. See Guiney, 654 F.Supp. at 1289-94. Those portions of the stipulation most critical to the resolution of the dispute are as follows.

Rule 111 requires Boston police officers to submit to urine testing for illegal drug use both on a reasonable suspicion basis and on a random, without cause, basis. Officers to be tested without cause will be selected by a randomized independent computer program. Those individuals selected will perform their bodily functions in private and unobserved. The specimens collected will be tested twice. The initial test shall use a thin-layer chromatography process. The secondary confirmation test of any positive findings shall use either enzyme immunoassay, gas or liquid chromatography, or mass spectrometry. Final confirmation of the presence of drugs in the urine sample of an officer sets in motion the Civil Service laws of the Commonwealth, under which the officer is entitled to full hearings at which he or she has the opportunity to present a complete legal defense and exculpatory evidence.

II.

By its terms, the Fourth Amendment prohibits only unreasonable searches and seizures. In order to determine whether there has been a violation of the Fourth Amendment, a court must proceed in two steps. First, the court must determine that government conduct constitutes a search and seizure by infringing a legitimate expectation of privacy. Second, if a search and seizure occurred, the court must determine whether it was reasonable.

No extended discussion of the first step is required. Urinalysis drug testing is a search and seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. The federal and state courts that have ruled on the constitutionality of urinalysis drug testing have been virtually unanimous in this conclusion. See National Federation of Federal Employees [NFFE] v. Weinberger, 818 F.2d 935, 942 (D.C.Cir.1987); National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab, 816 F.2d 170, 176 (5th Cir.1987), cert. granted, — U.S.-, 108 S.Ct. 1072, 99 L.Ed.2d 232 (1988); McDonnell v. Hunter, 809 F.2d 1302, 1307 (8th Cir.1987); Feliciano v. City of Cleveland, 661 F.Supp. 578, 584 (N.D.Ohio 1987); Lovvorn v. City of Chattanooga, 647 F.Supp. 875, 879 (E.D.Tenn.1986); Macias v. State, 649 S.W.2d 150, 152 (Tex.App.1983). Moreover, this conclusion does not turn on whether or not the procedures employed involve direct visual inspection of urination. NFFE v. Weinberger, 818 F.2d at 942.

The reasons given for concluding that urinalysis drug testing is a search and seizure are twofold. First, the taking of a urine sample in order to reveal the “personal physiological information” contained therein is a “considerable intrusion upon an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy.” Policemen’s Benevolent Ass’n of N.J. v. Washington Township, 672 F.Supp. 779, 787 (D.N.J.1987); cf. New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325, 337, 105 S.Ct. 733, 740, 83 L.Ed.2d 720 (1985) (noting that *959 “even a limited search of the person is a substantial invasion of privacy”). Second, the testing of urine is comparable to the testing of blood, which the Supreme Court found to be a search in Schmerber v. California, 384 U.S. 757, 86 S.Ct. 1826, 16 L.Ed.2d 908 (1966).

III.

Having concluded in Part II that urinalysis drug testing is a search and seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, I proceed to address the issue of reasonableness. A search is usually considered to be unreasonable, and a violation of the Fourth Amendment, unless a warrant has been procured or probable cause exists in circumstances associated with one of the narrowly drawn exceptions to the warrant requirement. Cf. O’Connor v. Ortega, 480 U.S. 709, 107 S.Ct. 1492, 1501, 94 L.Ed.2d 714 (1987) (plurality opinion of O’Connor, J.) (noting that “[f]or the most part, we have required that a search be based upon probable cause”). Rule 111 provides for two separate programs of urinalysis, one grounded on a basis of individualized, reasonable suspicion — that is, without a warrant and without probable cause —and the other on a random basis.

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Bluebook (online)
686 F. Supp. 956, 3 I.E.R. Cas. (BNA) 598, 1988 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4883, 47 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) 38,220, 1988 WL 53860, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guiney-v-roache-mad-1988.