Taylor v. O'Grady

888 F.2d 1189, 1989 WL 129964
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedNovember 1, 1989
DocketNo. 88-1783
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 888 F.2d 1189 (Taylor v. O'Grady) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Taylor v. O'Grady, 888 F.2d 1189, 1989 WL 129964 (7th Cir. 1989).

Opinion

FLAUM, Circuit Judge.

Defendants James O’Grady, Sheriff of Cook County, and Spencer Leak,1 Executive Director of the Cook County Department of Corrections (“Department”) appeal the decision of the district court enjoining them from continuing mandatory urinalysis screening for all employees of the Department. For the reasons stated below, we find the injunction to be over-broad and remand the case for modification of the injunction consistent with this opinion.

[1191]*1191I. Facts and Proceedings Below

Defendant O’Grady is the Cook County, Illinois, Sheriff, the highest-ranking law enforcement officer of the County. The Illinois General Assembly has included within his office the Cook County Department of Corrections. Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 125 ¶ 202. Among the powers delegated to the Sheriff is the authority to appoint the Department’s Executive Director, defendant Leak, who is responsible for the management and operation of the Department. The Executive Director’s authority extends to the employees and activities of this facility, including the formulation and implementation of personnel policies and regulations for the Cook County Jail. Pursuant to the authority of their offices, the individual defendants ratified and implemented Departmental General Order 9.8A, which provides for an annual mandatory urine testing program (“AMUT”) effective August 26, 1986, for all employees of the Department.2

A. The Urinalysis Test

The AMUT program, as its full name suggests, is a systematic urinalysis program designed to detect the use of illegal drugs by Department correctional employees. Under the program every correctional officer and correctional supervisor3 of the Department would be compelled to produce a urine specimen once each year for chemical analysis. A correctional officer would have no advance notice of the specific day on which she would be required to produce a urine specimen. Officers scheduled for testing would be advised during the roll call at the beginning of their shift that they must produce a urine specimen that day. They would then be taken to a holding area where they would remain until they could produce a urine specimen. Under the program, they would have until the close of the shift to produce a specimen. If not, the unsuccessful, presumably unwilling, officer could be terminated.

Immediately prior to producing a specimen, officers would be requested, but not required, to specify medical information relating to their drug and medical history. The purpose of the inquiry is informational and precautionary; in the event of a false positive urinalysis result, the officer would have on record prior recorded responses to help explain that result.

Each officer to be tested would be accompanied to a restroom by a testing administrator of the same sex. Prior to her admission, the restroom would be searched for any objects, articles, or materials which may corrupt the specimen. The officer would then be subjected to a pat-down search. Thereafter, the administrator would hand her a cup to urinate into and admit the officer to the restroom for that purpose. The testing administrator would maintain “some visual contact” of the officer from a “discreet” distance. The general order does not require or recommend direct observation of the flow of urine from the officer’s body into the cup unless the investigator has reason to believe that the officer might attempt to falsify her sample by, for example, switching samples or substituting water for the urine specimen. Ordinarily, women officers would be allowed to produce a specimen within a stall with the door closed, while male officers would use a urinal.

The officer’s specimen would be placed in two separate containers, sealed, and sent to the Department. Then one container would be opened and the specimen analyzed for the presence of marijuana, cocaine, and opiates through the Enzyme Multiplied Immunoassay Test (“EMIT”). [1192]*1192If the EMIT test is positive, the opened container would be resealed and, along with the unopened container, sent to the Met-Path Laboratories in Wood Dale, Illinois, for a second analysis utilizing the Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectroscopy test (“GCMS”).4 If the second test also proved positive, the officer would have the option of having another GCMS test performed upon the sample.

If the second GCMS failed to confirm the previous positive results, no action would be taken against the officer. If, however, the second GCMS test produced the same positive result, or if the officer declined to have a second GCMS performed, she would be presented with the option of entering a treatment program for drug abusers or, if she declined to enter the treatment program, the Sheriff could file a complaint with the Cook County Police and Corrections Merit Board seeking termination of the officer. If the officer entered the drug treatment program she would be compelled to produce urine specimens for analysis twice each month for the next six months. The Sheriff could seek the officer’s discharge if any of these specimens produced a positive result, if the officer “fails to successfully complete the program,” or if following the completion of the drug treatment program any of the officer’s regular AMUT specimens produced a positive result.

B. The District Court’s Findings

Following the announcement of the planned implementation of the AMUT program, the plaintiffs initiated this lawsuit. They comprise a certified class of all correctional officers and correctional supervisors,5 approximately 1700 persons in total, who seek to have the Department enjoined from continuing the AMUT program. Premising their lawsuit on 42 U.S.C. §§ 1983, 1988, and 28 U.S.C. § 2201, they argue that the urinalysis testing violates the fourth amendment. They also seek a declaratory judgment that the program is unconstitutional.

Following a bench trial, Judge Getzen-danner issued a declaratory judgment that the AMUT program violates the fourth amendment and therefore enjoined the Department from implementing the AMUT program. Taylor v. O’Grady, 669 F.Supp. 1422 (N.D.Ill.1987). At trial and continuing here on appeal, the Department has advanced three interests to be served by the AMUT program. First, the Department argues that the AMUT program will maintain an unimpaired work force, a work force otherwise said to be infected to some degree with drug abuse. Second, the Department believes the program will prevent correctional officers from smuggling illegal drugs into the Cook County Jail and selling the drugs to the inmate population. Finally, the AMUT program is said to foster the public’s perception of the integrity of the correctional officers as law-abiding law enforcement personnel.

Based on exhibits and testimony relating to the incidence of both drug abuse and drug-trafficking by correctional officers, the district judge concluded that drug abuse or drug trafficking among the correctional officers occurred in rates similar to that of the general population. The court found support for Dr.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

United States v. Zimmerman
80 F. App'x 160 (Third Circuit, 2003)
Eason v. BOARD OF CTY. COM'RS OF BOULDER
70 P.3d 600 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2003)
Taylor v. O'Grady
888 F.2d 1189 (Seventh Circuit, 1989)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
888 F.2d 1189, 1989 WL 129964, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/taylor-v-ogrady-ca7-1989.